Significant upregulation of prenyltransferase-related genes in neuromyelitis optica: Diagnostic potential and clinical correlations.

Protein prenylation is an important posttranslational modification being involved in several processes such as regulation of immune response. Here, we analyzed expression of four genes from this pathway, namely FNTA, RABGGTA, RABGGTB and PGGT1B in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO). Using the comparative ΔCt method (normalizing target gene expression to the housekeeping gene B2M), the study demonstrated that all four genes were significantly overexpressed in NMO patients compared to controls (p < 0.0001). When patients and controls were classified into high and low gene expression subgroups based on these cut-offs, an overwhelming majority of NMO patients fell into the high expression group for all four genes, whereas most healthy controls were categorized in the low expression group. All genes had appropriate performance in separation of NMO patients from controls with AUC values ranging from 0.89 to 0.97 for FNTA and RABGGTA, respectively. Altogether, the study demonstrates dysregulation of prenyltransferase-related genes in NMO and their possible application as peripheral markers.