Evaluation of Plasma Neurofilament Light Chain Levels as a Biomarker of Neuronal Injury in the Active and Chronic Phases of Autoimmune Neurologic Disorders.

Objective

To evaluate plasma neurofilament light (NfL) levels in autoimmune neurologic disorders (AINDs) and autoimmune encephalitis (AE).

Background

Each particular neural autoantibody syndrome has a different clinical phenotype, making one unifying clinical outcome measure difficult to assess. While this is a heterogeneous group of disorders, the final common pathway is likely CNS damage and inflammation. Defining a biomarker of CNS injury that is easily obtainable through a blood sample and reflects a positive treatment response would be highly advantageous in future therapeutic trials. Measurement of blood concentration of neurofilament light (NfL) chain, however, may provide a biomarker of central nervous system (CNS) injury in AE and other AINDs. Here we provide an initial evaluation of plasma NfL levels in AE as well as other AINDs during active and chronic phases of disease and demonstrate its potential utility as a minimally-invasive biomarker for AE and AINDs.

Design/Methods

Patients were retrospectively identified who were enrolled in the biorepository at the Rocky Mountain MS Center at the University of Colorado, or were prospectively enrolled after initial presentation. Patients had a well-defined AIND and were followed between 2014 and 2021. NfL was tested using the Single Molecule Array (SIMOA) technology. Patients with headaches but without other significant neurologic disease were included as controls.

Results

Twenty-six plasma and 14 CSF samples of patients with AINDs, and 20 plasma control samples stored in the biorepository were evaluated. A positive correlation was found between plasma and CSF NfL levels for patients with an AIND (

Conclusions

Our findings support the use of plasma NfL as a potential minimally-invasive biomarker of CNS injury.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2022 Kammeyer, Mizenko, Sillau, Richie, Owens, Nair, Alvarez, Vollmer, Bennett and Piquet.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

RK has received compensation for advisory boards and consultancy with Genentech/Roche. EA has received compensation for activities such as advisory boards, lectures and consultancy with the following companies and organizations: Actelion/Janssen, Alexion, Bayer, Biogen, Celgene/BMS, EMD Serono/Merck, Genentech/Roche, Genzyme. EA has received research support from the following: Biogen, Genentech/Roche, Novartis, TG Therapeutics, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Initiative, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Institutes of Health, and Rocky Mountain MS Center. KN has received grant funding from Genentech and Novartis and consulting fees from Novartis, Biogen, and Bristol Meyers Squibb. TV has received compensation for lectures and consultancy from Biogen, Genentech/Roche, Siranax, Celgene, EMD Serono and Novartis and has received research support from Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center, Celgene, Biogen, Anokion, Genentech, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, GW Pharma and TG Therapeutics, Inc. JB reports personal fees from Roche, personal fees from Genentech, personal fees from Viela Bio, personal fees from Chugai Pharma, personal fees from Alexion, grants and personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Genzyme, personal fees from Clene Nanoscience, personal fees from Mitsubishi-Tanabe, personal fees from Reistone Bio, grants from National Institutes of Health, outside the submitted work. JB has a patent Aquaporumab issued. AP has received research funding from the Drake Family, Rocky Mountain MS Center, and the University of Colorado through the intradepartmental grant. Outside of this work, AP reports honorarium from MedLink and consulting fees from Genentech/Roche and Alexion. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.