Abstract
ObjectiveTo investigate the diagnostic value of serum neurofilament light chain (NFL) for discriminating Parkinson disease (PD) from Essential tremor (ET) and healthy controls, and to evaluate its correlation with some clinical features of PD patients.MethodsThis cross-sectional study measured NFL levels with electrochemiluminescence immunoassay in serum of 146 PD patients, 82 ET patients and 60 age-matched healthy controls. We used multivariate regression analyses to examine whether NFL contributes to PD biomarkers. Disease severity were assessed by Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS III), Hoehn & Yahr (H-Y) stage and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).ResultsSerum NFL levels were significantly higher in PD than in ET and healthy controls (16.6 ± 3.5, 12.2 ± 2.4 and 11.8 ± 2.4 pg/mL, respectively, p < 0.001). In patients with PD, serum NFL were markedly increased in patients with advanced H-Y stage and patients with dementia (both p < 0.001). The correlation analysis revealed that serum NFL was positively associated with UPDRS III score (r = 0.79, p < 0.001) and H-Y stage (r = 0.86, p < 0.001), and negatively correlated with MMSE scores (r = − 0.70, p < 0.001). Further multivariate regression analyses showed that serum NFL was an independent contributor to motor symptom and cognition severity in PD patients (all p < 0.01).ConclusionsSerum NFL levels were markedly elevated may be a useful clinical biomarker for discriminating PD patients from ET and controls. Serum NFL may serve as a potential blood biomarker for motor and cognition severity of PD.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been considered primarily as a motor disorder [1]
The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores were significantly lower in patients with PD (28.4 ± 2.9) than in patients with Essential tremor (ET) (29.4 ± 1.4) and in healthy controls (29.8 ± 0.4)
Serum neurofilament light chain (NFL) concentrations in PD and ET To determine whether older age might influence serum NFL levels, we examined the correlation between the age of the subjects and NFL levels
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been considered primarily as a motor disorder [1]. In addition to typical motor symptoms, cognitive impairment is one of the most disabling nonmotor features for PD patients and caregivers, and dementia eventually develops in a significant proportion of PD patients [2]. Essential tremor (ET) is generally regarded as a benign movement disorder with single symptom, and has been replaced by the view that it may be a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disease [3]. Most PD patients suffer from the tremor dominant type, which has the most symptomatic overlap with ET [4]. Classic ET is characterized by action tremor, which affects the upper limbs in at least 95% of patients. No specific blood-biomarker have been identified for
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