Plasma neurofilament light chain: A potential prognostic biomarker of dementia in adult Down syndrome patients

• Published in: PloS one 2019-04, Vol.14 (4), p.e0211575-e0211575
• Main Authors: Shinomoto, Makiko, Kasai, Takashi, Tatebe, Harutsugu, Kondo, Masaki, Ohmichi, Takuma, Morimoto, Masafumi, Chiyonobu, Tomohiro, Terada, Naoto, Allsop, David, Yokota, Isao, Mizuno, Toshiki, Tokuda, Takahiko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Advertising executives; Alzheimer's disease; Biological markers; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers - blood; Care and treatment; Clinical trials; Cytoskeletal proteins; Dementia; Dementia - blood; Dementia - complications; Dementia - diagnosis; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Down syndrome; Down Syndrome - blood; Down Syndrome - complications; EDTA; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Male; Medical research; Medical schools; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Neurofilament Proteins - blood; Prognosis; Risk factors; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211575

People with Down syndrome (DS) are at high risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD) with aging. The diagnosis and treatment trials are hampered by a lack of reliable blood biomarkers. Plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) is one of the established biomarkers of AD, suggesting that it may be useful as an indicator of dementia in DS patients. The aims of this study were: 1) to examine whether plasma levels of NfL in DS patients are correlated with decreased adaptive behavior scores one year after sample collection, and 2) to compare plasma levels of NfL in adults with DS and an age-matched healthy control population. In this study, plasma levels of NfL in 24 patients with DS and 24 control participants were measured by the single-molecule immunoarray (Simoa) method. We observed significantly increased plasma NfL levels in the DS compared with the control group. There was a significant correlation between age and levels of plasma NfL in both groups. This age-dependent elevation was steeper in the DS compared with the control group. Moreover, elevated plasma NfL was associated with decreased adaptive behavior scores one year later, after age-adjustment. Previously reported blood-based biomarkers available in Simoa for DS, plasma total tau and phosphorylated tau, were not significantly correlated with the annual decrement of adaptive behavior scores after age-adjustment. These results suggest that plasma NfL has the potential to serve as an objective biomarker to predict dementia in adult DS patients.