GFAP and Neuron Specific Enolase (NSE) in the Serum of Suicide Attempters

Abstract

Background: To determine whether neuronal damage and/or neuroinflammation exist in the brain of suicide attempters and to find a novel biological biomarker to help distinguishing high risk individuals with suicide behavior, we aimed to measure glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neuron specific enolase (NSE), and nerve growth factor (NGF) in suicide attempters. Methods: In the present case-control study, the serum level of NSE, GFAP, and NGF were measured quantitatively in 43 suicide attempters and 43 healthy control participants aged 18 to 35 years. Data were analyzed using the nonpaired t test followed by the Mann-Whitney posttest. Results: The mean serum level of NSE and GFAP were significantly higher in suicide attempters compared with healthy control individuals ( p = 0.003, p = 0.001, respectively), while no significant difference was detected in NGF serum level between the 2 groups. Conclusion: Our findings of increased level of NSE along with the significant increase in GFAP would propose the presence of low grade neuroinflammation in the brain of these participants. NSE/GFAP might be good markers that is easily accessible and can be considered as prognostic markers in high-risk suicide attempters.

A Prospective Multicenter Longitudinal Analysis of Suicidal Ideation among Long-COVID-19 Patients

“…Additionally, the widespread expression of ACE2, the cellular entry receptor for SARS-CoV2, suggests potential direct infection in various tissues, including the brain, leading to dysregulated peripheral tissue inflammation and neurological complications. These findings support the hypothesis that there is an intricate interplay between hyperinflammation, suicidal risk, and the pathophysiology of COVID-19 [15] and long-Covid [44][45][46] As a further confirmation, a cross-sectional study of American adults revealed significantly higher SI/SB scores in subjects with a previous clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 (n = 39) one year after infection compared to those without, despite a similar history of diagnosed depression and anxiety [47]. Similarly, in a retrospective analysis of electronic health records of 153,848 COVID-19 survivors in the US, SI risk one year after infection was 46% higher in the group that had been affected by SARS-CoV-2 compared to the control group of unaffected patients [21,48].…”

In children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia, inflammation and neuronal damage biomarkers are associated with affective and chronic fatigue symptoms

“…Variations in GFAP levels can manifest in response to traumatic injuries, neurodegenerative or neuroinflammatory processes (Bagheri et al, 2015, Abdelhak et al, 2019), neuropathology (Wang and Parpura, 2016), disruption of the blood-brain barrier (Torres-Platas et al, 2016), and brain vascular inflammation. Serum and cerebrospinal fluid NSE elevation is an effective biomarker for neuronal loss and impairment, brain injury, and neuroinflammation (Park et al, 2019, Bagheri et al, 2022, Haque et al, 2018). It is noteworthy that an increase in the release of neuronal biomarkers into the bloodstream (Arslan and Zetterberg, 2023, Negi et al, 2023) through the glymphatic system may result from apoptosis of brain cells (Hablitz and Nedergaard, 2021, Plog et al, 2015).…”

“…Serum GFAP has been proposed as a potential marker for monitoring astroglial pathology in MDD (Hol and Pekny, 2015, Al Shweiki et al, 2017, Steinacker et al, 2021). It was believed that NSE and GFAP serve as prognostic indicators for high-risk suicide attempters (Bagheri et al, 2022). Furthermore, elevated CRP levels were found to be strongly correlated with increases in these neuronal and astroglial projection injury biomarkers in MDD (Al-Hakeim et al, 2023a).…”

“…NFL is a biomarker of neuronal injury and neurodegenerative processes in the central nervous system (CNS), whilst neurodegenerative diseases are frequently associated with elevated NFL plasma levels (Maes et al, 2022c, Yuan and Nixon, 2016). GFAP serves as an indicator of astrocyte functionality, and both its upregulation and rearrangement are crucial factors in the pathogenesis and progression of neurodegeneration, ischemic stroke, and various other CNS disorders (Bagheri et al, 2022, Hol and Pekny, 2015, Yang and Wang, 2015). Two other neuronal injury biomarkers that were not explored in TDT are nestin and neuron-specific enolase (NSE).…”

“…Nestin mediates radial axonal growth and is an additional intermediate filament protein that is expressed by neuronal progenitor cells, including those in the adult brain (Hendrickson et al, 2011, Paquet-Durand and Bicker, 2007). NSE is an additional neuronal marker that has been linked to neurodegenerative, inflammatory, hypoxic, and metabolic diseases (Park et al, 2019, Bagheri et al, 2022, Haque et al, 2018).…”