Symposium
Session Room: Alsh
Session Room: Alsh
Monday, June 29, 02:50 PM – 04:05 PM
Symposium 29:
Neurofilament Light Chain in Psychiatry: From Translational Research to Clinical Practice
Neurofilament Light Chain in Psychiatry: From Translational Research to Clinical Practice
Neurofilament light chain (NfL), often suggested to be a CRP or troponin for the brain, is an axonal structural protein released during brain injury and age-related brain remodeling (1). It has emerged as a sensitive marker of neuronal damage and represents one of the first brain-derived blood biomarkers to achieve routine clinical implementation (2). In neurology, NfL has reshaped the field by enabling the translation of brain-based blood biomarkers for diagnosis and monitoring (1). However, the role of NfL in psychiatry is less well established (3, 4). This symposium brings together preclinical, clinical, and population-based perspectives to provide a comprehensive overview of NfL as a translational biomarker in psychiatric disorders and to explore its path toward clinical use.
Francesco Bavato (Aarhus University, Denmark) will provide an overview of NfL in psychiatry, highlighting its molecular underpinnings, including axonal injury and neuroplasticity, and their potential links to psychiatric symptoms across diagnostic categories. He will present original evidence on NfL as both a state and trait marker across psychiatric conditions from a large-scale population-based study.
Ming-Chyi Huang (Taipei City Hospital and Taipei Medical University, Taiwan) will discuss NfL in the context of addiction, focusing on clinical populations with ketamine and alcohol use disorders. Combining cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence, she will illustrate how NfL reflects neural vulnerability and recovery, and how it may inform prognosis and treatment monitoring in addiction medicine.
Anna Jacobsen (University of Zurich, Switzerland) will present findings from a population-based dataset on associations between NfL changes and structural brain imaging, with a particular focus on young adulthood. These data reveal subtle yet clinically relevant neuroaxonal changes and highlight the potential of NfL as a biomarker for brain remodeling processes with implications for brain development, substance use, and early intervention.
Dhamidhu Eratne (The University of Melbourne, Australia) will present NfL-related findings from the MiND Study, a national and international platform investigating blood-based biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders. He will focus on the role of NfL in distinguishing dementia from primary psychiatric disorders and on its potential integration into accessible diagnostic and monitoring tools, highlighting pathways to global translation and clinical adoption.
Together, these talks will demonstrate relevant applications for NfL in the field of psychiatry. Attendees will gain a multidimensional perspective on NfL’s neurobiology, translational relevance, and its potential utility as a clinical biomarker. The symposium emphasizes mechanistic insights, clinical evidence, and population-level perspectives, while fostering discussion on how to guide the next steps toward clinical implementation of NfL in psychiatry. Ultimately, the symposium will explore how NfL might open a new era of precision psychiatry, where translational blood biomarkers finally reach meaningful clinical application.
Francesco Bavato (Aarhus University, Denmark) will provide an overview of NfL in psychiatry, highlighting its molecular underpinnings, including axonal injury and neuroplasticity, and their potential links to psychiatric symptoms across diagnostic categories. He will present original evidence on NfL as both a state and trait marker across psychiatric conditions from a large-scale population-based study.
Ming-Chyi Huang (Taipei City Hospital and Taipei Medical University, Taiwan) will discuss NfL in the context of addiction, focusing on clinical populations with ketamine and alcohol use disorders. Combining cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence, she will illustrate how NfL reflects neural vulnerability and recovery, and how it may inform prognosis and treatment monitoring in addiction medicine.
Anna Jacobsen (University of Zurich, Switzerland) will present findings from a population-based dataset on associations between NfL changes and structural brain imaging, with a particular focus on young adulthood. These data reveal subtle yet clinically relevant neuroaxonal changes and highlight the potential of NfL as a biomarker for brain remodeling processes with implications for brain development, substance use, and early intervention.
Dhamidhu Eratne (The University of Melbourne, Australia) will present NfL-related findings from the MiND Study, a national and international platform investigating blood-based biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders. He will focus on the role of NfL in distinguishing dementia from primary psychiatric disorders and on its potential integration into accessible diagnostic and monitoring tools, highlighting pathways to global translation and clinical adoption.
Together, these talks will demonstrate relevant applications for NfL in the field of psychiatry. Attendees will gain a multidimensional perspective on NfL’s neurobiology, translational relevance, and its potential utility as a clinical biomarker. The symposium emphasizes mechanistic insights, clinical evidence, and population-level perspectives, while fostering discussion on how to guide the next steps toward clinical implementation of NfL in psychiatry. Ultimately, the symposium will explore how NfL might open a new era of precision psychiatry, where translational blood biomarkers finally reach meaningful clinical application.