Glatiramer Acetate modulates ion channel expression and calcium homeostasis in B-cell of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

In order to investigate the effects of Glatiramer acetate (GA) in treatment-naïve RR-MS female patients’ B cells we performed Affymetrix Gene-Chip Human Genome HG-U133A_2 hybridization experiments Transcriptome analysis before and after acute (six hours in vitro) and chronic (six months in vivo) treatment with GA. We compared the transcriptional profiles of B cells, from the above-mentioned patients, treated or not with GA for 6 hours in vitro, and before and after six months of GA treatment in vivo. For the analysis, total RNA was extracted from B cells from all patients, treated or not with GA for 6 hours in vitro, and before and after six months of GA treatment in vivo. Patient ID is represented as "Xn" in the sample titles. Technical replicates were performed for most samples. Technical replicates were produced by splitting cells from the same donor/treatment into two sets which were each used for independent RNA extraction.