Aging is a significant factor influencing the course of multiple sclerosis (MS). Accelerated telomere attrition is an indicator of premature biological aging and a potential contributor to various chronic diseases, including neurological disorders. However, there is currently a lack of studies focusing on telomere lengths in patients with MS.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the length of telomeric DNA sequences in peripheral blood in relation to clinical MS phenotypes and disease progression.
We measured the average leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in biobanked samples of 40 relapsing-remitting MS patients (RRMS), 20 primary progressive MS patients (PPMS) and 60 healthy controls using a multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction method. Association analyses of baseline LTL with the long-term clinical profiles of the patients were performed using inferential statistics and regression models adjusted for age and sex.
The cross-sectional analysis revealed that the RRMS group was characterized by a significantly shorter relative LTL, on average, as compared to the PPMS group and controls. Shorter telomeres at baseline were also associated with a higher conversion rate from RRMS to secondary progressive MS (SPMS) in the 10-year follow-up period.
Our data suggest a possible contributory role of accelerated telomere shortening in the pathobiology of MS. The interplay between age- and disease-related immune system alterations and blood cell telomere dynamics deserves further investigation. New insights into the mechanisms of disease might be obtained by exploring the distribution of telomere lengths in specific cell populations.