Plasma GFAP in Parkinson's disease with cognitive impairment and its potential to predict conversion to dementia

• Published in: NPJ Parkinson's Disease Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 23
• Main Authors: Tang, Yilin, Han, Linlin, Li, Shiyu, Hu, Tianyu, Xu, Zhiheng, Fan, Yun, Liang, Xiaoniu, Yu, Huan, Wu, Jianjun, Wang, Jian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Nature Publishing Group 09.02.2023; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Age; Biomarkers; Clinical trials; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Dementia; Nervous system; Neurosciences; Parkinson's disease; Plasma; Proteins
• ISSN: 2373-8057; 2373-8057
• DOI: 10.1038/s41531-023-00447-7

Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) has been suggested as a biomarker for reactive astrogliosis. We measured the levels of plasma GFAP by Simoa in 60 patients with PD with normal cognition, 63 with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), 24 with dementia (PDD) and 15 healthy controls. A subgroup of patients with PD-MCI (n = 31) was followed up for 4.1 ± 2.3 years. Compared with healthy controls, plasma GFAP levels were elevated in patients with PDD (adjusted P < 0.001) and PD-MCI (adjusted P = 0.013) and were negatively correlated with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score in PD participants. Plasma GFAP predicted MCI-to-dementia conversion with an AUC of 0.90, higher than NfL, Tau and pTau181. Our results support that plasma GFAP has potential value for distinguishing patients with PDD, and predicting MCI-to-dementia conversion in PD.