Neurofilament light (NfL) has emerged in recent years as a blood-based biomarker with the potential to aid in the improvement of early diagnosis and patient care of neuro-axonal injury and neurodegeneration. Hundreds of studies using Simoa® have validated the use of NfL as a promising and critical tool for early detection, prognosis, and monitoring treatment for a range of neurodegenerative conditions.

NfL is a cytoskeletal intermediate filament protein that is highly expressed in neuronal axons. It associates with the Neurofilament medium (NfM) and Neurofilament heavy (NfH) to form neurofilaments, a major component of the neuronal cytoskeleton, which provide structural stability to neurons as well as regulate axon diameter. Following neuro-axonal damage or neurodegeneration, release of neurofilaments significantly increases. CSF and blood NfL have been shown to be increased in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD) and other neurological disorders.

The Simoa® NfL assay is a high sensitivity digital immunoassay for the quantitative determination of NfL in serum, plasma and CSF. The antibodies (Uman Diagnostics, Umeå Sweden) also cross react with murine, bovine, and macaque NfL epitopes, and the assay can be used for research with these species. Quanterix also offers Simoa® NfL testing in human serum only as a Laboratory Developed Test (NfL-LTD) that has been validated under CLIA. This test is not currently cleared by the U.S. FDA as an in vitro diagnostic. Access our fact sheet to learn more.