Neurofilament in Equine Motor Neuron Disease and Potential Use as Diagnostic Biomarkers

This study investigates the potential use of the protein heavy chain neurofilaments (pNF-H) assays as a biomarker in the diagnosis of Equine Motor Neuron Disease (EMND). Serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were obtained from clinically healthy horses (144) and horses with confirmed EMND diagnosis (119). In addition, horses diagnosed with other neurologic conditions such as equine protozoal myelitis (EPM 37) and equine vertebral malformation (CVM 14) were also enrolled in the study. Detection of pNF-H was achieved through assay with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The significance of association between levels of pNF-H was evaluated using the Analysis of variance and the logistic regression analyses statistical techniques. Average serum concentration of pNF-H in EMND horses was 3.32ng/mL, which was significantly higher than in clinically healthy horses (0.38ng/mL), in EPM cases (1.97ng/mL), or horses afflicted with CVM (1.17ng/mL). Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons demonstrated no significant difference in the levels of pNF between the controls and either of EPM, or CVM cases. These data suggest that pNF-H has the potential to be used in aiding the diagnosis of EMND horses during the antemortem examination. The probability of diagnosis of EMND increased with the levels of EMND.