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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1344087

Association Between Aromatic Amines and Serum Neurofilament Light Chain as a Biomarker of Neural Damage: A Cross-Sectional Study from NHANES

Provisionally accepted
Tong Lin Tong Lin *Haiyan Mao Haiyan Mao Shanshan Huang Shanshan Huang Jialu Chen Jialu Chen
  • Ningbo Medical Centre Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo, China

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

    Background Aromatic amines (AAs) are a group of compounds widely found in chemical industry, tobacco smoke, and during food processing, with established carcinogenic properties. To date, there have been no reports on the potential neurotoxic effects of adult exposure to AAs. Serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) is a protein released into the bloodstream following nerve axon injury and has been validated as a reliable biomarker for various neurological diseases. However, there has been no research to investigate the relationship between AAs exposure and sNfL.Methods In this study, we selected adults (aged ≥20 years) with data on both AAs and sNfL from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted in 2013-2014. We used multivariable linear regression models to explore the correlation between urinary AAs and sNfL.In total, 510 adult participants with an average age of 43.58 ± 14.74 years were included in the study. Our findings indicate that, based on univariate linear regression and between-group comparative analyses, 1-Aminonaphthalene (1-AN), 2-Aminonaphthalene (2-AN), 4-Aminobiphenyl (4-AN) and o-Anisidine (o-ANI) showed a positive correlation with serum neurofilament light chain (P＜0.05). However, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that only 2-AN exhibited a positive correlation with serum neurofilament light chain (P＜0.05), while the correlations of other compounds with serum neurofilament light chain became non-significant.Although our cross-sectional study fails to establish causal relationships or determine clinical significance, the findings indicate a potential association between adult exposure to AAs, notably 2-AN, and nerve damage. Consequently, further research is needed to explore the connection between AAs exposure, sNfL, and neurological conditions in adults.

    Keywords: Aromatic amines, 2-aminonaphthalene, serum neurofilament light chain, NHANES, Nerve injury

    Received: 24 Nov 2023; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lin, Mao, Huang 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: Tong Lin, Ningbo Medical Centre Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo, China

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