Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Oct 15;363:572-578. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.07.146. Epub 2024 Jul 27.
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 < 0.001), and WBC (β = 0.05, 95%CI: 0.03, 0.07; p < 0.001), respectively. These significant associations were observed only in elderly participants.
The cross-sectional study design is limited in causal inference.
Our findings indicate that serum NFL levels are related to an increased risk of clinically relevant depressive symptoms and higher levels of markers of systemic inflammation.
神经丝轻链（NFL）是神经轴突损伤的生物标志物，与炎症和抑郁障碍有关，但结果不一致。我们旨在评估一般人群中血清 NFL 浓度与临床相关抑郁症状之间的关联，并研究系统性炎症在这种关联中的潜在作用。
从 2013-2014 年全国健康和营养调查（NHANES）中提取了 1881 名 20-75 岁成年人的数据。使用高度敏感的免疫测定法定量血清 NFL 水平。此外，根据全血细胞计数计算了系统性炎症标志物，包括全身免疫炎症指数（SII）、全身炎症反应指数（SIRI）和白细胞（WBC）计数。使用 9 项患者健康问卷（PHQ-9）评估临床相关抑郁症状，截断值为 10。
在调整了潜在混杂因素后，我们发现 ln 转换后的血清 NFL 浓度每增加一个单位，临床相关抑郁症状的风险就会增加 1.37 倍（95%置信区间[CI]：1.06，1.77；p=0.017）。血清 NFL 水平与 SII 增加显著相关（回归系数[β]0.04，95%CI：0.01，0.08；p=0.027）、SIRI（β0.09，95%CI：0.05，0.14；p<0.001）和 WBC（β0.05，95%CI：0.03，0.07；p<0.001），这些显著相关性仅在老年参与者中观察到。
横断面研究设计在因果推断方面存在局限性。
我们的研究结果表明，血清 NFL 水平与临床相关抑郁症状的风险增加和更高水平的系统性炎症标志物有关。
