TY - JOUR AU - Fazeli, Badrieh AU - Botzenhardt, Sara AU - Bachhuber, Franziska AU - Klassen, Paula Cynthia AU - Klose, Veronika AU - Dorst, Johannes AU - Wiesenfarth, Maximilian AU - Uzelac, Zeljko AU - Jesse, Sarah AU - Brenner, David AU - Anderl-Straub, Sarah AU - Ludolph, Albert AU - Otto, Markus AU - Weishaupt, Jochen AU - Tumani, Hayrettin AU - Halbgebauer, Steffen TI - Comparative analysis of cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament medium, light and heavy chain in neurodegenerative diseases using an in-house assay for the detection of neurofilament medium chain. JO - EBioMedicine VL - 120 SN - 2352-3964 CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] PB - Elsevier M1 - DZNE-2025-01167 SP - 105930 PY - 2025 AB - Neurofilaments are key axonal proteins, with neurofilament light (NfL) and heavy (NfH) chain recognised as promising biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, neurofilament medium chain (NfM) remained previously underexplored due to a lack of quantitative assays. In this study, we developed a sensitive immunoassay to measure NfM in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and analysed its levels in ALS, Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Lewy body dementia (LBD). Correlations among neurofilaments and their diagnostic performance were also evaluated.In this study CSF levels of three neurofilament proteins were measured in 305 participants, including patients with ALS (n = 91), AD (n = 59), FTD (n = 38), LBD (n = 18), non-neurodegenerative controls (CTRL, n = 51), and 48 individuals initially evaluated for ALS but ultimately diagnosed with other conditions (CTRL.DD). NfM levels were quantified using a homemade sandwich ELISA, while NfL and NfH were measured using commercialised Ella cartridges.All three neurofilaments were significantly elevated in ALS compared to CTRL and CTRL.DD groups (p < 0.0001 for both), with NfM and NfL also increased in FTD (p < 0.0001 for both) and AD (NfM, p < 0.0001; NfL, p = 0.0001) compared to CTRL. NfH demonstrated the greatest distinction between ALS and FTD (p < 0.0001). Strong correlations were observed among neurofilament subunits, particularly between NfM and NfL (r = 0.93, 95 KW - Humans KW - Neurofilament Proteins: cerebrospinal fluid KW - Male KW - Female KW - Biomarkers: cerebrospinal fluid KW - Neurodegenerative Diseases: cerebrospinal fluid KW - Neurodegenerative Diseases: diagnosis KW - Aged KW - Middle Aged KW - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: cerebrospinal fluid KW - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: diagnosis KW - ROC Curve KW - Aged, 80 and over KW - Frontotemporal Dementia: cerebrospinal fluid KW - Frontotemporal Dementia: diagnosis KW - Alzheimer's diseases (Other) KW - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Other) KW - ELISA (Other) KW - Fluid biomarkers (Other) KW - Neurofilament medium chain (Other) KW - Neurofilament Proteins (NLM Chemicals) KW - Biomarkers (NLM Chemicals) KW - neurofilament protein L (NLM Chemicals) KW - neurofilament protein M (NLM Chemicals) KW - neurofilament protein H (NLM Chemicals) LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:40974909 C2 - pmc:PMC12481134 DO - DOI:10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105930 UR - https://pub.dzne.de/record/281734 ER -