Renal function is associated with blood neurofilament light chain level in older adults

Abstract

Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a novel biomarker of neurodegenerative diseases. It is detectable in the peripheral blood, allowing low-invasive assessment of early signs of neurodegeneration. The level of NfL gradually increases with age; however, what other factors affect it remains unclear. The present study examined the association between blood NfL level and renal function among healthy participants undergoing a health check (n = 43, serum NfL) and patients with diabetes mellitus (n = 188, plasma NfL). All participants were 60 years of age or older; none were diagnosed with dementia. In each group, levels of blood NfL and serum creatinine significantly correlated (coefficient r = 0.50, 0.56). These associations remained statistically significant even after adjustment for age, sex, and body mass index. These findings indicate that blood NfL level might be partially affected by renal function. We recommend measuring renal function for a more precise evaluation of neuroaxonal damage, in particular, among older adults.

Serum Neurofilament Light Chain Measurement in MS: Hurdles to Clinical Translation

“…Similar to the proposed explanations for increased concentrations with age, these associations could be driven by comorbid but clinically silent white matter disease (Khalil et al, 2020). Renal function may also be important for NfL clearance as a cause for higher measurements in these patients (Akamine et al, 2020).…”

Neurofilament light and heterogeneity of disease progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: development and validation of a prediction model to improve interventional trials

“…Although the model shows a reliable test performance at the group level, we observed clinically relevant deviations in some patients, making the model less suitable for individual predictions. The predictive accuracy might be further improved by incorporating respiratory parameters and genetic status or by adjusting for confounders of NfL levels such as age and related morphologic brain changes [41], renal function, and blood volume [41][42][43]; however, the data available for our cohorts did not allow further investigations. Methods to reduce the noise of the ALSFRS-R itself during assessment might also enhance the development of prediction models [1,[44][45][46].…”

Plasma neurofilament light as a potential biomarker for cognitive decline in a longitudinal study of middle-aged urban adults

“…This difference in age group, racial, and SES composition is expected to yield diverging findings between our study and those of others, mainly due to differing baseline exposure and outcome levels. Finally, we have adjusted for a large number of potential confounders, including body mass index, and cardio-metabolic risk factors, some of which were shown to be associated with plasma NfL in previous studies [ 47 , 48 ]. We also accounted for literacy, depressive symptoms, and other important factors that most other studies have not controlled for.…”