Serum NFL and t-tau expression levels and clinical significance in children with autism spectrum disorder
Objective To investigate the expression levels and clinical significance of serum neurofilament light chain(NFL)and tau protein(t-tau)in children with autism spectrum disorder(ASD).Methods A total of 78 children who were first diagnosed with ASD in the outpatient clinic of our hospital between May 2021 and January 2023 were selected as the study subjects(ASD group),and were divided into the mild-moderate group(n=51)and the severe group(n=27)according to the scores of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale(CARS).Another 120 healthy children who came to our hospital for health examination during the same period were selected as the healthy group.The differences in serum NFL and t-tau levels were compared between the groups;Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between serum NFL,t-tau and CARS scores;and the predictive value of serum NFL and t-tau on the occurrence of ASD was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve.Results The difference in basic characteristics between the children in the ASD group and the healthy group were not statistically significant(P＞0.05).The serum NFL and t-tau levels of children in the ASD group were significantly higher than those in the healthy group(t=46.795 and 76.669,respectively,P＜0.05).The serum NFL,levels of children in the severe group were significantly higher than those in the mild-moderate group(t=11.753 and 30.382,respectively,P＜0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that the serum NFL,t-tau levels of children with ASD were positively correlated with the CARS scores(r=0.503 and 0.442,respectively,P＜0.05).The results of the ROC curves showed that the area under curve(AUC)(95％CI)of serum NFL and t-tau in predicting the onset of ASD were 0.752(0.701-0.803)and 0.837(0.786-0.888),with cut-off values of 18.74 pg/mL and 516.71 ng/L,respectively,and specificity of 55.27％and 66.14％,respectively,and sensitivity of 91.24％for both;the AUC(95％CI)for the combined prediction of the two was 0.905(0.854-0.956),with specificity of 87.31％and sensitivity of 86.05％.Conclusion Serum NFL and t-tau levels were up-regulated in expression in children with ASD and closely correlated with the severity of the disease,which is expected to be used as potential serum markers to predict the occurrence of ASD.
autism spectrum disorderschildrenneurofilament protein light chaintau proteinseverity of condition
万方数据
维普
