The identification of more reliable diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers in age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), is urgently needed. The objective in this study was to identify more reliable prognostic biomarkers of ALS mirroring neurodegeneration that could be of help in clinical trials. A total of 268 participants from three cohorts were included in this study. The muscle and blood cohorts were analyzed in two cross-sectional studies, while the serial blood cohort was analyzed in a longitudinal study at 6-monthly intervals. Fifteen target genes and fourteen proteins involved in muscle physiology and differentiation, metabolic processes and neuromuscular junction dismantlement were studied in the three cohorts. In the muscle biopsy cohort, the risk for a higher mortality in an ALS patient that showed high Collagen type XIX, alpha 1 (COL19A1) protein levels and a fast progression of the disease was 70.5% (P < 0.05), while in the blood cohort, this risk was 20% (P < 0.01). In the serial blood cohort, the linear mixed model analysis showed a significant association between increasing COL19A1 gene levels along disease progression and a faster progression during the follow-up period of 24 months (P < 0.05). Additionally, higher COL19A1 levels and a faster progression increased 17.9% the mortality risk (P < 0.01). We provide new evidence that COL19A1 can be considered a prognostic biomarker that could help the selection of homogeneous groups of patients for upcoming clinical trial and may be pointed out as a promising therapeutic target in ALS.
Keywords: ALS; Collagen XIX type A1; disease progression; neurodegeneration; prognostic biomarker.