MOLECULAR AND GENETIC BASIS OF VITILIGO- CONCEPTS OF MELANOGENESIS IN UNANI MEDICINE
Seelamneni Thulasamma, Alokananda Chakraborty, Kaiser Jamil*, Munawwar Husain Kazmi, S. Kareemullah and Anwar Ahmed
ABSTRACT
Vitiligo patients from Unani hospital were selected and segregated according to temperaments (humours) following guidelines of the unani system of categorization. Even though vitiligo aetiology is unknown, few hypotheses suggest it as an autoimmune disorder, but familial vitiligo suggests a genetic origin. Since NLRP1 and MIF genes were reported to be associated with vitiligo we investigated the expression of these genes.We hypothesized that the expression of these genes might be associated with vitiligo via dysregulation of Treg cells. Hence, we determined the relationship between gene expressions and disease severity. The randomly selected patients were: phlegmatic (balghami) 67%, sanguine (Damvi) 20% and bilious (Safravi)13%. The demographs and clinical profiles were correlated with molecular studies using real-time RT-PCR, the NLRP-1 gene expression was 1.44 fold higher, MIF gene was 0.75 folds compared to controls. TNFα demonstrated an insignificant influence in the disease process. It was evident that NLRP-1 had a major role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo hence could be a useful biomarker for prognosis of vitiligo (Bars).
Keywords: Vitiligo vulgaris, NALP1gene, MIFgene, pathogenesis, biomarker, TNF?, phenotypes, Unani temperaments, humours.
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