MOVEMENT DISORDER SOCIETY

Wilke C, Dos Santos MCT, Schulte C, Deuschle C, Scheller D, Verbelen M, Brockmann K, von Thaler AK, Sunkel U, Roeben B, Bujac S, Metzger FG, Maetzler W, da Costa AN, Synofzik M and Berg D

Mov Disord. 2020 Apr 27

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28026

Abstract

Background And Objectives

With disease‐modifying treatment strategies on the horizon, stratification of individual patients at the earliest stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is key—ideally already at clinical disease onset. Blood levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL) provide an easily accessible fluid biomarker that might allow capturing the conversion from prodromal to manifest PD.

Methods

We assessed longitudinal serum NfL levels in subjects converting from prodromal to manifest sporadic PD (converters), at‐risk subjects, and matched controls (72 participants with ≈4 visits), using single‐molecule array (Simoa) technique.

Results

While NfL levels were not increased at the prodromal stage, subjects converting to the manifest motor stage showed a significant intraindividual acceleration of the age‐dependent increase of NfL levels.

Conclusions

The temporal dynamics of intraindividual NfL blood levels might mark the conversion to clinically manifest PD, providing a potential stratification biomarker for individual disease onset in the advent of precision medicine for PD.