Correlation between cerebrospinal fluid and plasma neurofilament light protein in treated HIV infection: results from the COBRA study

Alagaratnam, Jasmini, De Francesco, Davide, Zetterberg, Henrik, Heslegrave, Amanda, Toombs, Jamie, Kootstra, Neeltje A., Underwood, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6963-2821, Gisslen, Magnus, Reiss, Peter, Fidler, Sarah, Sabin, Caroline A. and Winston, Alan 2022. Correlation between cerebrospinal fluid and plasma neurofilament light protein in treated HIV infection: results from the COBRA study. Journal of Neurovirology (JNV) 28 , pp. 54-63. 10.1007/s13365-021-01026-3

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Abstract

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light protein (NfL) is a marker of central nervous system neuro-axonal injury. A novel, ultra-sensitive assay can determine plasma NfL. In untreated people-with-HIV (PWH), CSF and plasma NfL are strongly correlated. We aimed to assess this correlation in PWH on suppressive antiretroviral treatment (ART) and lifestyle-similar HIV-negative individuals enrolled into the COmorBidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) study. Differences in paired CSF (sandwich ELISA, UmanDiagnostics) and plasma (Simoa digital immunoassay, Quanterix™) NfL between PWH and HIV-negative participants were tested using Wilcoxon’s test; associations were assessed using Pearson’s correlation. CSF and plasma NfL, standardised to Z-scores, were included as dependent variables in linear regression models to identify factors independently associated with values in PWH and HIV-negative participants. Overall, 132 PWH (all with plasma HIV RNA < 50 copies/mL) and 79 HIV-negative participants were included. Neither CSF (median 570 vs 568 pg/mL, p = 0.37) nor plasma (median 10.7 vs 9.9 pg/mL, p = 0.15) NfL differed significantly between PWH and HIV-negative participants, respectively. CSF and plasma NfL correlated moderately, with no significant difference by HIV status (PWH: rho = 0.52; HIV-negative participants: rho = 0.47, p (interaction) = 0.63). In multivariable regression analysis, higher CSF NfL Z-score was statistically significantly associated with older age and higher CSF protein, and higher plasma NfL Z-score with older age, higher serum creatinine and lower bodyweight. In conclusion, in PWH on ART, the correlation between CSF and plasma NfL is moderate and similar to that observed in lifestyle-similar HIV-negative individuals. Consideration of renal function and bodyweight may be required when utilising plasma NfL.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	1355-0284
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 December 2021
Date of Acceptance:	27 October 2021
Last Modified:	17 May 2023 11:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/146008

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