Pharmacogenetics of glatiramer acetate therapy for multiple sclerosis: The impact of genome-wide association studies identified disease risk loci

AIM: Association analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified multiple sclerosis (MS) risk genetic variants with glatiramer acetate (GA) treatment efficacy. PATIENTS & METHODS: SNPs in 17 GWAS-identified immune response loci were analyzed in 296 Russian MS patients as possible markers of optimal GA treatment response for at least 2 years. RESULTS: Alleles/genotypes of EOMES, CLEC16A, IL22RA2, PVT1 and HLA-DRB1 were associated by themselves with event-free phenotype during GA treatment for at least 2 years (p f  = 0.032 - 0.00092). The biallelic combinations including EOMES, CLEC16A, IL22RA2, PVT1, TYK2, CD6, IL7RA and IRF8 genes were associated with response to GA with increased significance level (p f  = 0.0060 - 1.1 × 10-5). The epistasic interactions or additive effects were observed between the components of the identified biallelic combinations. CONCLUSION: We pinpointed the involvement of several GWAS-identified MS risk loci in GA therapy efficacy. These findings may be aggregated to predict the optimal GA response in MS patients.