University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Family Medicine, Institute for Translational Research, Fort Worth, TX, USA.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2024 Nov;102(1):60-66. doi: 10.1177/13872877241283693. Epub 2024 Oct 20.
No large-scale characterizations of neurofilament light chain (NfL) and cognitive outcomes have been conducted in community-dwelling non-Hispanic Blacks.
This study aims to enhance the application of blood biomarkers, in particular NfL, to ethno-racially diverse communities. We assess the association of NfL with cognitive outcomes, hypothesizing that NfL can identify cognitive changes regardless of diagnostic category.
Baseline data were analyzed among = 283 non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) from the multi-ethnic Health and Aging Brain Study- Health Disparities (HABS-HD). Plasma NfL was measured on the Simoa platform. Linear regression models were conducted, covarying for age, gender, and education.
The majority of study participants (72%) were cognitively unimpaired (CU), with 21% having mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 6.7% with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In adjusted models among the entire sample, significant associations existed between NfL and Trails A ( < 0.0001), Trails B ( < 0.0001), phonemic (FAS) and semantic (Animals) fluency ( = 0.03), and Symbol Digit Substitution ( < 0.001). When separated by diagnostic classification, significant associations were removed for functions involving executive functions for all diagnostic groups. Higher levels of NfL were positively associated with cognitive diagnosis, older age, and less education.
Plasma NfL levels are significantly associated with measures of executive functioning, which elucidate NfL as a non-specific marker of neurodegeneration associated with efficiency of brain functions involving attention, processing, and generativity. NfL may be a sensitive measure for the detection of alterations in cognitive processing before the onset of phenotypic functional changes of neurodegeneration.
尚未对居住在社区的非西班牙裔黑人进行大规模的神经丝轻链（NfL）与认知结果的特征描述。
本研究旨在增强血液生物标志物，特别是 NfL，在种族多样化社区中的应用。我们评估了 NfL 与认知结果的关联，假设 NfL 可以识别认知变化，而不论诊断类别如何。
对来自多民族健康和衰老大脑研究-健康差异（HABS-HD）的 283 名非西班牙裔黑人（NHB）的基线数据进行了分析。使用 Simoa 平台测量了血浆 NfL。进行线性回归模型分析，协变量为年龄、性别和教育程度。
研究参与者的大多数（72%）认知未受损（CU），21%有轻度认知障碍（MCI），6.7%患有阿尔茨海默病（AD）。在整个样本的调整模型中，NfL 与 Trails A（ < 0.0001）、Trails B（ < 0.0001）、语音流畅性（FAS）和语义流畅性（动物）（ = 0.03）以及符号数字替代（ < 0.001）之间存在显著关联。当按诊断分类分开时，所有诊断组的执行功能相关功能的关联都消失了。较高的 NfL 水平与认知诊断、年龄较大和受教育程度较低呈正相关。
血浆 NfL 水平与执行功能测量显著相关，这表明 NfL 是一种与涉及注意力、处理和生成性的大脑功能效率相关的非特异性神经退行性变标志物。NfL 可能是检测认知加工变化的敏感指标，可在神经退行性变表型功能变化出现之前检测到。
