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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1517663
This article is part of the Research Topic Blood, Cerebrospinal Fluid, and Vascular Biomarkers for Dementia View all 8 articles

Association of Serum Neurofilament Light Chain with Cognitive Impairment: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

Provisionally accepted
Tianjiao Meng Tianjiao Meng 1Qinwen Fei Qinwen Fei 1Tian Lv Tian Lv 1Shiqin Chen Shiqin Chen 2*
  • 1 Zhejiang Zhuji People's Hospital, Zhuji, China
  • 2 Yuhuan Second People’s Hospital, Yuhuan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Serum Neurofilament Light chain (NfL) is a promising biomarker of neuronal damage,used to assess the extent of neuronal injury and neurodegeneration, and it is widely applied in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease and monitoring disease progression. This article aims to determine whether serum NfL associated with cognitive level. Methods: Using NHANES data, we conducted an analysis of cognitive test results for 450 adults aged 60 years and older and examined their correlation with serum NfL levels. When exploring the association between cognitive test scores and serum NfL levels, regression models and restricted cubic spline(RCS) regression models were employed to adjust for potential confounding factors. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was applied for identifying key cognitive impairment factors, which was then included in the establishment of a risk prediction nomogram model, with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve being built to evaluate its discriminatory power for cognitive impairment. Results: it was found that there is a strong positive correlation between serum NfL levels and both low total cognitive function(total-CF) OR:1.028 (95%CI=1.015-1.041 P <0.001 ) and low Digit Symbol Substitution Test(DSST) OR:1.026(95%CI=1.003-1.050, P = 0.027). Furthermore, using the RCS model, we observed a linear trend in the relationship between NfL and low total-CF .The nomogram model based on NfL identified by LASSO regression displayed a considerable predicative value for low total-CF, with an area under the curve (AUC = 85.6 % (81.6-89.Conclusions: There is a strong correlation between serum NfL levels and cognitive function, especially DSST, which reflects attention and information processing abilities, as well as overall cognitive function, but not memory and language fluency. Thus, NfL may serve as a serum biomarker for dementia monitoring.

    Keywords: Cognitive Function, serum neurofilament light chain, RCS, nomogram, NHANES

    Received: 28 Oct 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Meng, Fei, Lv and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shiqin Chen, Yuhuan Second People’s Hospital, Yuhuan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.