Serum neurofilament light at diagnosis: a prognostic indicator for accelerated disease progression in Parkinson's Disease

Camilla Christina Pedersen; Anastasia Ushakova; Guido Alves; Ole-Bjørn Tysnes; Kaj Blennow; Henrik Zetterberg; Jodi Maple-Grødem; Johannes Lange

doi:10.1038/s41531-024-00768-1

Serum neurofilament light at diagnosis: a prognostic indicator for accelerated disease progression in Parkinson's Disease

NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2024 Aug 21;10(1):162. doi: 10.1038/s41531-024-00768-1.

Authors

Camilla Christina Pedersen^{1

2}, Anastasia Ushakova³, Guido Alves^{1

2

4}, Ole-Bjørn Tysnes^{5

6}, Kaj Blennow^{7

8

9

10}, Henrik Zetterberg^{7

8

11

12

13

14}, Jodi Maple-Grødem^{1

2}, Johannes Lange^{15

16}

Affiliations

¹ The Centre for Movement Disorders, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway.
² Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway.
³ Section of Biostatistics, Department of Research, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway.
⁵ Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden.
⁸ Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden.
⁹ Paris Brain Institute, ICM, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.
¹⁰ Neurodegenerative Disorder Research Center, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, and Department of Neurology, Institute on Aging and Brain Disorders, University of Science and Technology of China and First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Hefei, P.R. China.
¹¹ Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
¹² UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, London, UK.
¹³ Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁴ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
¹⁵ The Centre for Movement Disorders, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway. johannes.lange@sus.no.
¹⁶ Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway. johannes.lange@sus.no.

Abstract

Neurofilament light chain (NFL) is elevated in neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to investigate serum NFL in newly diagnosed PD and its association with cognitive and motor decline over 10 years. Serum NFL levels were measured in PD patients and controls from the ParkWest study at diagnosis (baseline) and after 3 and 5 years. Mixed-effects regression analyzed changes in NFL and the association with annual changes in MMSE and UPDRS-III scores over 10 years. PD patients had elevated serum NFL at all visits and a faster annual increase over 5 years compared to controls (0.09 pg/mL per year; p = 0.029). Higher baseline NFL predicted faster cognitive decline β -0.77 transformed MMSE; p = 0.010), and a 40% NFL increase predicted future motor decline (β 0.28 UPDRS-III; p = 0.004). Elevated serum NFL in early PD is linked to faster cognitive and motor impairment, suggesting its prognostic value in PD biomarker panels.

Abstract

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