Diabetes linked to elevated serum neurofilament light chain levels

A recent study has found an association between diabetes mellitus and higher serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL), biomarkers of neuroaxonal injury in multiple neurological diseases, in a US population.

The research team measured sNfL levels in 2,070 people aged 20‒75 years from the general US population (275 with and 1,795 without diabetes) who participated in the 2013‒2014 cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Using a multivariable linear regression model, they explored the relationship between diabetes and sNfL levels after adjusting for age, sex, race-ethnicity, alcohol use, and kidney function.

A subset of participants aged 60‒75 years had their cognitive function assessed using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease-Word Learning test, the Animal Fluency test, and the Digit Symbol Substitution test.

Diabetes had a weighted prevalence of 10.4 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 0.9‒11.9). In each age group, diabetic patients showed higher sNfL levels than did those without diabetes. A progressive increase was seen in age, proportion of males, diabetes prevalence, and homeostatic model of insulin resistance across quartiles of sNfL levels, but estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) exhibited a reverse trend.

In the multivariable model, sNfL levels significantly correlated with age, sex, diabetes, eGFR, and alcohol use. In addition, higher sNfL levels significantly correlated with worse performance in all cognitive function tests used.

“Further large-scale and prospective studies are needed to replicate our results and evaluate the ability of sNfL to predict the incidence of neuropathy and dementia in this patient population,” the researchers said.