title: Elevated glial fibrillary acidic protein levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with narcolepsy.
abstract: Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is an established indicator of astrogliosis. Therefore, variable cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of this protein might reflect disease-specific pathologic profiles. In patients with narcolepsy, a loss of hypocretin-1 (hcrt-1) neurons in the brain and low concentrations of hcrt-1 in CSF have been reported. We performed a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to investigate if GFAP also is altered in the CSF of these patients. Here we detected significantly higher CSF levels of GFAP in patients with low hcrt-1 levels, of which the majority had a diagnosis of narcolepsy and cataplexy (NC); however, this finding was not observed in patients with hcrt-1 levels that were within reference range. In conclusion, GFAP may be useful as an additional disease biomarker in patients with narcolepsy, and this hypothesis should be investigated in larger studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Feneberg
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Steinacker
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lehnert
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Böhm
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D002385:Cataplexy / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D005911:Gliosis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D006801:Humans; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D000068797:Orexins; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; C000596229:HCRT protein, human; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D009479:Neuropeptides; D000068797:Orexins
keywords: Astrogliosis; Cataplexy; Cerebrospinal fluid; GFAP; Glial fibrillary acidic protein; Hypocretin-1; Narcolepsy