• Lieke H Meeter, Elise G Dopper, Lize C Jiskoot, Raquel Sanchez-Valle, Caroline Graff, Luisa Benussi, Roberta Ghidoni, Yolande A Pijnenburg, Barbara Borroni, Daniela Galimberti, Robert Jr Laforce, Mario Masellis, Rik Vandenberghe, BerIsabelle LeILInstitut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM) Inserm U1127 CNRS UMR 7225 Sorbonne Universités Université Pierre et Marie Curie Univ Paris 06U PMC-P6 UMR S 1127 - Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière Paris France; Centre de Référence des Démences, Markus Otto, Rick van Minkelen, Janne M Papma, Serge A Rombouts, Mircea Balasa, Linn Öijerstedt, Vesna Jelic, Katrina M Dick, David M Cash, Sophie R Harding, Jorge CardosoMMDementia Research Centre Department of Neurodegenerative Disesase Institute of Neurology University College London WC1N 3BG London United Kingdom; Translational Imaging Group Centre for Medical Image Computing University College London NW1 , Sebastien Ourselin, Martin N Rossor, Alessandro Padovani, Elio Scarpini, Chiara Fenoglio, Maria C Tartaglia, Foudil Lamari, Christian Barro, Jens Kuhle, Jonathan D Rohrer, Charlotte E Teunissen, and John C van Swieten.
• Alzheimer Center Rotterdam and Department of Neurology Erasmus Medical Center PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam The Netherlands.
• Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2016 Aug 1; 3 (8): 623-36.

ObjectiveTo evaluate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) as a potential biomarker in the presymptomatic stage and during the conversion into the symptomatic stage. Additionally, to correlate NfL levels to clinical and neuroimaging parameters.MethodsIn this multicenter case-control study, we investigated CSF NfL in 174 subjects (48 controls, 40 presymptomatic carriers and 86 patients with microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), progranulin (GRN), and chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) mutations), and serum NfL in 118 subjects (39 controls, 44 presymptomatic carriers, 35 patients). In 55 subjects both CSF and serum was determined. In two subjects CSF was available before and after symptom onset (converters). Additionally, NfL levels were correlated with clinical parameters, survival, and regional brain atrophy.ResultsCSF NfL levels in patients (median 6762 pg/mL, interquartile range 3186-9309 pg/mL) were strongly elevated compared with presymptomatic carriers (804 pg/mL, 627-1173 pg/mL, P < 0.001), resulting in a good diagnostic performance to discriminate both groups. Serum NfL correlated highly with CSF NfL (r s = 0.87, P < 0.001) and was similarly elevated in patients. Longitudinal samples in the converters showed a three- to fourfold increase in CSF NfL after disease onset. Additionally, NfL levels in patients correlated with disease severity, brain atrophy, annualized brain atrophy rate and survival.InterpretationNfL in both serum and CSF has the potential to serve as a biomarker for clinical disease onset and has a prognostic value in genetic FTD.

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