Open AccessSerum neurofilament light protein predicts clinical outcome in traumatic brain injury
Author(s) -
Pashtun Shahim,
Magnus Gren,
Victor Liman,
Ulf Andréasson,
Niklas Norgren,
Yelverton Tegner,
Niklas Mattsson,
Niels Andreasen,
Martin Öst,
Henrik Zetterberg,
Bengt Nellgård,
Kaj Blennow
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep36791
Subject(s) - traumatic brain injury , biomarker , medicine , white matter , neurofilament , diffuse axonal injury , brain damage , glasgow outcome scale , pathology , oncology , magnetic resonance imaging , immunohistochemistry , biology , psychiatry , biochemistry , radiology
Axonal white matter injury is believed to be a major determinant of adverse outcomes following traumatic brain injury (TBI). We hypothesized that measurement of neurofilament light protein (NF-L), a protein found in long white-matter axons, in blood samples, may serve as a suitable biomarker for neuronal damage in TBI patients. To test our hypotheses, we designed a study in two parts: i) we developed an immunoassay based on Single molecule array technology for quantification of NF-L in blood, and ii) in a proof-of-concept study, we tested our newly developed method on serial serum samples from severe TBI (sTBI) patients (n = 72) and controls (n = 35). We also compared the diagnostic and prognostic utility of NF-L with the established blood biomarker S100B. NF-L levels were markedly increased in sTBI patients compared with controls. NF-L at admission yielded an AUC of 0.99 to detect TBI versus controls (AUC 0.96 for S100B), and increased to 1.00 at day 12 (0.65 for S100B). Importantly, initial NF-L levels predicted poor 12-month clinical outcome. In contrast, S100B was not related to outcome. Taken together, our data suggests that measurement of serum NF-L may be useful to assess the severity of neuronal injury following sTBI.