Faculty Collaboration Database

Serum protein biomarkers for degenerative cervical myelopathy: a prospective study. J Neurosurg Spine 2025 Jun 01;42(6):718-726

Date

04/12/2025

Pubmed ID

40215624

Pubmed Central ID

PMC12624368

DOI

10.3171/2025.1.SPINE241085

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105007067019 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   8 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Delays in diagnosis are common in degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM), and there is a need for additional objective assessments of spinal cord structure and function. The objective of this study was to profile serum protein biomarkers in DCM and determine their potential diagnostic and prognostic utility.

METHODS: Patients with clinically diagnosed DCM (n = 20) and scheduled to undergo decompressive surgery were prospectively enrolled from July 2022 to August 2023. Serum neuronal and inflammatory proteins in the patients were quantified before surgery and 3 months after surgery. Serum protein levels were compared between the DCM patients and healthy controls (n = 10). Serum biomarkers were also related to pre- and postsurgical functional measures.

RESULTS: DCM patients had a median age of 70 years, and healthy controls had a median age of 65 years. Presurgical neurofilament light chain (NfL; 30.2 vs 11.2 pg/ml, p = 0.01) and interleukin (IL)-6 (2.9 vs 1.2, p = 0.003) were significantly higher in DCM patients than in controls. Presurgical NfL, IL-6, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) best differentiated DCM and controls (p < 0.001). At 3 months after surgery, serum BDNF (p = 0.001), amyloid beta 42 (p = 0.042), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (p = 0.007) were significantly increased compared to presurgical values. Presurgical serum NfL was significantly associated with improvement in pinch strength after surgery (p = 0.03). Inflammatory biomarkers were linked to improvement in the neck pain-related disability and upper limb function.

CONCLUSIONS: Presurgical serum levels of NfL, IL-6, and BDNF show potential as diagnostic markers for DCM. Presurgical serum biomarkers of neuronal damage and inflammation predict early postsurgical functional outcomes in DCM.

Author List

Vedantam A, Rahman M, Salam S, Banerjee A, Satkunendrarajah K, Budde MD, Meier TB

Authors

Anjishnu Banerjee PhD Associate Professor in the Data Science Institute department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Matthew Budde PhD Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Timothy B. Meier PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Aditya Vedantam MBBS Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Biomarkers
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
Cervical Vertebrae
Decompression, Surgical
Female
Humans
Interleukin-6
Male
Middle Aged
Neurofilament Proteins
Prospective Studies
Spinal Cord Diseases