npj Parkinson's Disease (Feb 2023)

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

  • Yilin Tang,
  • Linlin Han,
  • Shiyu Li,
  • Tianyu Hu,
  • Zhiheng Xu,
  • Yun Fan,
  • Xiaoniu Liang,
  • Huan Yu,
  • Jianjun Wu,
  • Jian Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-023-00447-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 5

Abstract

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Abstract 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.