Abstract:Objective: To explore whether serum neurofilament light chain protein (NFL) can be used as a peripheral blood biomarker to predict the early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: The study included 50 AD patients (AD group) from the Alzheimer's disease clinical database of the Affiliated Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Xinjiang Medical University, 50 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI group) and the same time period 50 cognitively normal controls (CN group) matched by age and educational level. The subjects were all collected serum and detected the serum NFL protein level by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: ①The AD group, aMCI group and CN group had no statistical difference in age, education years and BMI (P>0.05), and the data were comparable. ②AD patients MMSE score was significantly lower than that of aMCI group and CN group [AD group (17.48±7.50), aMCI group (25.56±1.63), CN group (28.60±1.09); F=81.830, P=0.000]. The MoCA score had the most significant difference [AD group (12.04±6.31), aMCI group (19.92±3.17), CN group (27.62±1.16); F=177.187, P=0.000]. ③The NFL protein level of AD group and aMCI group were significantly higher than that of CN group, among which aMCI group was the highest [AD group (4.486±2.463) ng/mL, aMCI group (5.101±2.172) ng/mL and CN group (2.885±1.469) ng/mL, F=15.167, P=0.000]. Spearman correlation analysis found that age, MMSE score, MoCA score, ADL score and CDR score were not correlated with NFL protein levels among the three groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: Serum NFL levels in patients with MCI is the highest, suggesting that serum NFL level may be a peripheral blood biomarker for predicting the early stage of AD.
