CSF neurogranin as a neuronal damage marker in CJD: a comparative study with AD

Objective To investigate whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurogranin concentrations are altered in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), comparatively with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and associated with neuronal degeneration in brain tissue. Methods CSF neurogranin, total tau, neurofilament light (NFL) and 14-3-3 protein were measured in neurological controls (NCs, n=64), AD (n=46) and CJD (n=81). The accuracy of neurogranin discriminating the three diagnostic groups was evaluated. Correlations between neurogranin and neurodegeneration biomarkers, demographic, genetic and clinical data were assessed. Additionally, neurogranin expression in postmortem brain tissue was studied. Results Compared with NC, CSF neurogranin concentrations were increased in CJD (4.75 times of NC; p Conclusions Neurogranin is a new biomarker of prion pathogenesis with diagnostic and prognostic abilities, which reflects the degree of neuronal damage in brain tissue in a CJD subtype manner.