Longitudinal Change in Serum Neurofilament Light Chain in Type 2 Diabetes and Early Diabetic Polyneuropathy:...

To investigate the longitudinal development of neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in type 2 diabetes with and without diabetic polyneuropathy (+/-DPN) and to explore the predictive potential of NfL as a biomarker for DPN.

We performed retrospective longitudinal case-control analysis of data from 178 participants of the Anglo-Danish-Dutch Study of Intensive Treatment in People with Screen-Detected Diabetes in Primary Care-Denmark (ADDITION-Denmark) cohort of people with screen-detected type 2 diabetes. Biobank samples acquired at the ADDITION-Denmark 5- and 10-year follow-ups were analyzed for serum NfL (s-NfL) using single-molecule array, and the results were compared with established reference material to obtain NfL z-scores. DPN was diagnosed according to Toronto criteria for confirmed DPN at the 10-year follow-up.

s-NfL increased over time in +DPN (N = 39) and -DPN participants (N = 139) at levels above normal age-induced s-NfL increase. Longitudinal s-NfL change was greater in +DPN than in -DPN participants (17.4% [95% CI 4.3; 32.2] or 0.31 SD [95% CI 0.03; 0.60] higher s-NfL or NfL z-score increase in +DPN compared with -DPN). s-NfL at the 5-year follow-up was positively associated with nerve conduction studies at the 10-year follow-up (P = 0.02 to <0.001), but not with DPN risk. Areas under the curve (AUCs) for s-NfL were not inferior to AUCs for the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument questionnaire score or vibration detection thresholds. Higher yearly s-NfL increase was associated with higher DPN risk (odds ratio 1.36 [95% CI 1.08; 1.71] per 1 ng/L/year).

Our findings suggest that preceding s-NfL trajectories differ slightly between those with and without DPN and imply a possible biomarker value of s-NfL trajectories in DPN.