Apoptotic protease activating factor-1 gene and MicroRNA-484: A possible interplay in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

•Bioinformatics analysis revealed miR-484 involvement in the regulation of apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (APAF-1) gene expression.•APAF-1 mRNA is downregulated and miR-484 is overexpressed in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of RRMS patients.•miR-484 might be implicated in RRMS pathogenesis through downregulating APAF-1expression.•This study underscores the emerging role for APAF-1 and miR-484 as novel diagnostic markers.•Further studies including patients with other immune mediated disorders as controls are warranted to back up our results. Emerging evidence suggests that dysregulated apoptosis might be implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of the current study was to evaluate the expression of Apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (APAF1) mRNA and its potential regulator miR-484 in relapsing remitting MS patients (RRMS) and to investigate their role as potential disease biomarkers. After Bioinformatic analysis was conducted and revealed miR-484 involvement in the regulation of APAF-1 gene expression. Reverse Transcription-quantitative Real-Time PCR (RT-qPCR) was performed to detect the expression levels of APAF-1 and miR-484 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 34 RRMS patients recruited from the MS clinic of kasr al ainy hospital- faculty of medicine-Egypt and 34 healthy controls. APAF-1 mRNA was significantly downregulated in patients whereas miR-484 expression was upregulated compared to controls (p