th1, th2 and th17 cytokine profile in patients with multiple sclerosis following treatment with rapamycin

background: management of multiple sclerosis (ms) is based on the usage of immunosuppressive and immune-modulating medications. cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of ms. objective: to evaluate the effects of rapamycin on the concentrations of th1/th2/th17 serum cytokines in patients with ms. methods: six patients with relapsing remitting ms as a case group and 6 healthy individuals as a control group were enrolled. the patients have been receiving 2 mg rapamycin daily for 6 months. the individuals in control group received nothing during 6 months of the experiment. enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (simultaneous multi-analyte elisa) technique was used for determination of serum concentrations of il-2, il-4, il-5, il-6, il-10, il-12, il-13, il-17, ifn-γ, tnf-α, g-csf and tgf-β before and after therapy with rapamycin. results: the mean absorbance of 10 out of the 12 studied cytokines showed reduction after the therapy with rapamycin including il-2, il-4, il-5, il-6, il-10, il-12, il-13, il-17, ifn-γ and tnf-α. the only statistically significant reduction was observed in the absorbance of ifn-γ (p=0.028). two cytokines illustrated increase in the patients sera after the therapy, including g-csf and tgf-β, but only increase in tgf-β was statistically significant (p=0.046). none of the studied cytokines in the control group varied significantly after 6 months. conclusion: based on the findings of this study, rapamycin has some immunosuppressive effects, such as decreasing ifn-γ, which can improve the quality of life of the patients with multiple sclerosis. also the increased level of tgf-β may also have benefits on the disease, which needs further clinical studies.