title: Phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain levels in paired plasma and CSF of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease characterized by degeneration of both upper and lower motor neurons. In this study, we aimed to measure both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain (pNF-H) levels in patients with ALS, and determine if there is a correlation. We also evaluated plasma and CSF pNF-H levels to investigate if this biomarker could predict the time to generalization (TTG) in ALS better.
  
  
  METHODS
  Paired plasma and CSF pNF-H levels of patients with ALS (n=51), multiple system atrophy (n=12) and controls (n=30) were measured by monoclonal sandwich ELISA. TTG, which also indicates the time of symptoms spreading from spinal or bulbar localization to both, was evaluated in all ALS patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found a strong correlation between plasma and CSF pNF-H levels within individual patients (r=0.712, p<0.001). The mean TTG in ALS patients was 22.9months (range 1-84months), and there was an inverse correlation between plasma (r=-0.661; p<0.001)/CSF (r=-0.869; p<0.001) pNF-H levels and TTG.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The correlation of plasma and CSF pNF-H levels would bring insight into the pathogenesis of ALS. TTG might play an important role in the future study of ALS, as an early indicator of survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Siyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Yuting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China; Department of Neurology, Xuan Wu Hospital, Capital Medical University, No 45 Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Wenjia
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Xiaolan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. Electronic address: lewish301@sina.com.
authors.forename: Xusheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D044466:Asian People; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019578:Multiple System Atrophy / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins; C051774:neurofilament protein H
keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Biomarker; CSF; Neurofilament; Plasma; Time to generalization