Recent studies have better defined the association between the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4, interleukin-7 receptor, and interferon-gamma polymorphisms and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS), while many more studies have been added to the controversial pool of likely false-positive and false-negative genetic association and linkage studies.
Functional polymorphisms of the genes for interleukin-10 (IL-10; promoter position -1082), chemokine receptor-5 (CCR5 32 bp deletion), tumor necrous factor-alpha (TNFalpha promoter position -308) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4 exon 1 position 49) were investigated for possible influence on susceptibility and outcome of multiple sclerosis (MS).