Study participants
This study enrolled 20 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients from the Department of Neurology, National Cancer Center, South Korea. The diagnosis of MS was made according to 2017 McDonald criteria [35]. Twelve age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) were also recruited. No patients had co-existing central nervous system (CNS) diseases or other autoimmune diseases. Among 20 MS patients, 10 patients were treated with β-interferon and the rest received glatiramer acetate. None of the patients had received high-dose steroids in the 2 months preceding blood sampling. Demographic as well as clinical characteristics of participants are summarized in Table 1. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Statement on informed consent from the legally authorized representatives were also obtained as patients with RRMS are involve in this study. All the methods were performed according to the guidelines and regulations of Declaration of Helsinki.