Lithium’s effects on serum neurofilament light in Parkinson’s disease
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Background
Blood neurofilament light (NfL) is a disease-progression biomarker in Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Objectives
To determine the effects of lithium therapy on serum NfL in PD.
Methods
Frozen serum samples from 28 PD patients were assessed for serum NfL using the SIMOA platform at baseline and after 24-weeks of lithium therapy. Pairwise comparisons were performed using the Fisher-Pitman permutation test.
Results
Median % changes in serum NfL were -12.8, -2.0 and 11.2 in three patient groups defined by serum lithium levels at week 24: “high lithium” (0.21-0.56mmol/L, n=10), “medium lithium” (0.14-0.20mmol/L, n=8) and “low lithium” (<0.10-0.12mmol/L, n=10), respectively. Pairwise group comparisons showed significant differences between high and low lithium ( p =0.0001) and high and medium lithium ( p =0.0203) but not medium and low lithium groups ( p =0.0907).
Conclusions
Lithium therapy achieving serum levels 0.21-0.56mmol/L significantly reduced serum NfL in PD, which strongly supports further clinical investigation of lithium’s potential disease-modifying effects in PD.
Financial Disclosure
Thomas Guttuso, Jr. is the President and majority owner of e3 Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which manufactures a lithium aspartate dietary supplement. None of the other authors have any financial disclosures.
Study Funding
This study was funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number UL1TR001412 to the University at Buffalo.
