BACKGROUND Previous work has suggested that the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of a neural protein involved in synaptic transmission, VGF (a noninitialism), may be altered in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD). The objective of the current work is to examine the potential of CSF levels of a peptide derived from VGF to predict conversion from MCI to AD. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using multivariate analytical approaches, the performance of the conventional biomarkers (CSF Aβ1-42 and phosphorylated tau +/- hippocampal volume) was compared with the same biomarkers combined with CSF VGF peptide levels in a large publicly available data set from human subjects. RESULTS It was observed that VGF peptides are lowered in CSF of patients with AD compared with controls and that combinations of CSF Aβ1-42 and phosphorylated tau, hippocampal volume, and VGF peptide levels outperformed conventional biomarkers alone (hazard ratio=2.2 vs. 3.9), for predicting MCI to AD conversion. CONCLUSIONS CSF VGF enhances the ability of conventional biomarkers to predict MCI to AD conversion. Future work will be needed to determine the specificity of VGF for AD versus other neurodegenerative diseases.

中文翻译：

---

脑脊液中的 VGF 与传统生物标志物相结合可增强从 MCI 到 AD 转化的预测。

背景 先前的研究表明，参与突触传递的神经蛋白 VGF（非初始主义）的大脑和脑脊液 (CSF) 水平可能在轻度认知障碍 (MCI) 和阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 中发生改变。当前工作的目的是检查 CSF 水平的 VGF 肽的潜力，以预测从 MCI 到 AD 的转换。材料和方法 使用多变量分析方法，将传统生物标志物（CSF Aβ1-42 和磷酸化 tau +/- 海马体积）的性能与相同生物标志物结合 CSF VGF 肽水平在人类受试者的大型公开可用数据集中进行比较. 结果观察到，与对照组相比，AD 患者 CSF 中的 VGF 肽降低，并且 CSF Aβ1-42 和磷酸化 tau、海马体积和 VGF 肽水平的组合优于单独的常规生物标志物（风险比 = 2.2 对 3.9） ，用于预测 MCI 到 AD 的转换。结论 CSF VGF 增强了传统生物标志物预测 MCI 向 AD 转化的能力。未来的工作将需要确定 VGF 对 AD 与其他神经退行性疾病的特异性。