Highlights
- •Circulating levels of BDNF are decreased in MS.
- •In PwMS, subgroup analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in serum and plasma levels.
- •BDNF levels had negative and positive correlation with disease duration and males proportion, respectively.
Abstract
Background
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune demyelinating disease marked by the involvement
of multiple pathophysiological pathways, including BDNF. BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic
factor) is one of the main neurotrophic factors in the adult brain. The amount of
BDNF in the blood can be utilized as a surrogate for the central expression of this
marker. Given contradicting reports, we set out to answer the question, “How do blood
levels of BDNF differ in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) compared to controls?”
Methods
We performed a thorough search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane
Library databases, resulting in 13 eligible investigations. Eleven studies compared
BDNF in serum of PwMS versus healthy controls (HC), and two studies provided BDNF
levels in the plasma of PwMs. R version 4.0.4 was used for meta-analysis and visualizations.
Mean difference (MD) was used for the measurement of effect size.
Results
The final analysis included thirteen studies with 689 patients with MS and 583 controls.
The preliminary results indicated that MS patients had statistically significant lower
levels of BDNF than controls: SMD -5.1992 (95% CI [-8.4488; -1.9496], p-value < 0.0001. Additionally, subgroup analysis revealed a statistically significant difference
in serum and plasma levels (p-value=0.01). Performing univariate meta-regression, disease duration and the proportion
of males had, respectively, a significant negative and positive correlation with BDNF
levels.
Conclusion
Circulating levels of BDNF are decreased in MS. Future studies should investigate
the role of BDNF as a biomarker of disease severity and/or progression for a personalized
approach to MS.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 18, 2022
Accepted:
June 17,
2022
Received in revised form:
June 15,
2022
Received:
June 4,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
