Serum neurofilament light chain, markers of systemic inflammation and clinically relevant depressive symptoms in US adults

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders 2024-10, Vol.363, p.572-578
• Main Authors: Guo, Menglu, Zhu, Changlin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Clinically relevant depressive symptoms; Neurofilament light chain; System inflammation response index; Systemic immune inflammation index; Systemic inflammation
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.07.146

Neurofilament light chain (NFL), a biomarker of neuroaxonal damage, has been linked to inflammation and depressive disorders, albeit with inconsistent results. We aimed to evaluate the association between serum NFL concentration and clinically relevant depressive symptoms in the general population and to examine the potential involvement of systemic inflammation in this association. The data of 1881 adults aged 20–75 years were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013–2014 cycle. Serum NFL levels were quantified using a highly sensitive immunoassay. Further, markers of systemic inflammation, including systemic immune inflammation index (SII), system inflammation response index (SIRI), and white blood cell (WBC) counts were calculated based on whole blood cell counts. Clinically relevant depressive symptoms were evaluated using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) with a cut-off score of 10. After adjusting for potential confounders, we found that each one-unit increase in ln-transformed serum NFL concentration was significantly associated with a 1.37-fold increase in the risk of clinically relevant depressive symptoms (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.06, 1.77; p = 0.017). Serum NFL level was significantly related to increased SII (regression coefficient [β] = 0.04, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.08; p = 0.027), SIRI (β = 0.09, 95%CI: 0.05, 0.14; p