United States: Medical research indicates blood analysis assists doctors in identifying ALS among patients while providing an estimate of disease progression through new study findings, as reported by HealthDay.
ALS patients show blood neurofilament light chain protein levels that are three times higher than patients with other brain diseases, according to research results published in Neurology on Feb. 26.
High Accuracy in ALS Detection
Scientists reported that blood analysis for neurofilament light chain proteins achieved a detection accuracy rate of more than 80% for ALS patients.
The testing procedure demonstrates its ability both to detect ALS and to forecast survival times in ALS patients based on the study results.
Predicting Survival and Disease Progression
A set point measurement of neurofilament light chain proteins identified patients who survived longer than one year at 40%. All individuals with Neurofilament Light Chain protein values above this specific threshold died within the studied period.
Dr. Sylvain Lehmann stated in a news release that better prognostic information benefits individuals with ALS and healthcare providers who support them and their families under his role as director of neuroscience research at the University of Montpellier’s Institute for Neurosciences in France.
Understanding ALS and Study Details
The degenerative condition known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease targets nerve cells throughout the brain and spinal cord. The degradation of signaling and control nerves leads to muscle control loss for patients.
This study measured blood samples from 139 ALS patients against 70 patients who had lower motor neuron disease or primary lateral sclerosis.
Neurofilament light chain proteins, glial acidic proteins, and phosphorylated tau 181 were the blood markers that the research team exclusively analyzed.
Glial acidic proteins escape from cells during their repair effort of tissue damage while phosphorylated tau 181 plays a role in toxic amyloid protein aggregation associated with Alzheimer’s disease brain pathology.
Potential Impact on ALS Diagnosis and Treatment
“Having an effective biomarker can be highly valuable — in addition to helping in making the diagnosis, it can help in predicting prognosis, evaluating what stage of the disease people are in, and tracking their progress or their response to treatments,” Lehmann said.
Research data demonstrated that neurofilament light chain protein testing surpasses the other two measurements in detecting and monitoring ALS progression, as reported by HealthDay.
The accuracy of the two additional markers was reported at 50% by researchers.