Third Department of Neurology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Leeds, UK.
Aging Clin Exp Res. 2021 Apr;33(4):869-881. doi: 10.1007/s40520-020-01554-8. Epub 2020 Apr 18.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most frequent dementia, after Alzheimer's, in patients under the age of 65. It encompasses clinical entities characterized by behavioral, language, and executive control dysfunction. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a new, non-disease specific, widely studied biomarker indicative of axonal injury and degeneration. Various studies have previously explored the role of NfL in the diagnostic process, monitoring, and prognosis of dementia. The current systematic review and meta-analysis include all the available data concerning the role of NfL in frontotemporal dementia and its use as a potential biomarker in differentiating patients with FTD from (a) healthy individuals, (b) Alzheimer's dementia, (c) Dementia with Lewy bodies, (d) Motor Neuron disease, (e) Parkinsonian syndromes, and (f) psychiatric disorders. We also analyze the utility of NfL in distinguishing specific FTD subgroups. Neurofilament light chain has a potential role in differentiating patients with frontotemporal dementia from healthy controls, patients with Alzheimer's dementia, and psychiatric disorders. Higher NfL levels were also noted in patients with semantic primary progressive aphasia (PPA) when compared with behavioral FTD and non-fluent PPA patients. Further studies exploring the use of NfL in frontotemporal dementia are needed.
额颞叶痴呆（FTD）是 65 岁以下患者中仅次于阿尔茨海默病的第二常见痴呆症。它包含以行为、语言和执行控制功能障碍为特征的临床实体。神经丝轻链（NfL）是一种新的、非疾病特异性的、广泛研究的生物标志物，提示轴突损伤和退化。先前的各种研究探讨了 NfL 在诊断过程、监测和痴呆预后中的作用。本系统评价和荟萃分析包括所有关于 NfL 在额颞叶痴呆中的作用及其作为区分 FTD 患者与（a）健康个体、（b）阿尔茨海默病痴呆、（c）路易体痴呆、（d）运动神经元病、（e）帕金森综合征和（f）精神障碍的潜在生物标志物的作用的现有数据。我们还分析了 NfL 在区分特定 FTD 亚组中的效用。神经丝轻链在区分额颞叶痴呆患者与健康对照、阿尔茨海默病痴呆患者和精神障碍患者方面具有潜在作用。与行为性 FTD 和非流利性 PPA 患者相比，语义性原发性进行性失语症（PPA）患者的 NfL 水平也更高。需要进一步研究探索 NfL 在额颞叶痴呆中的应用。
