The Promise and Limitations of Neurofilament Light Chain in Peripheral Nerve Disorders: Brett Morrison, MD, PhD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“I don't think neurofilament light chain is the answer by itself. It's another tool that can help us follow patients over time, especially when it's combined with clinical scales, patient-reported outcomes, and the neurologic examination.”

Biomarkers are becoming increasingly important in the management of peripheral nerve disorders, offering opportunities to improve diagnosis, prognostication, disease monitoring, and therapeutic development. As treatments continue to advance across conditions such as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), hereditary neuropathies, and motor neuron diseases, there is growing interest in identifying objective measures that can complement traditional clinical assessments and electrodiagnostic testing.

Among the most widely studied biomarkers today is neurofilament light chain (NfL), a marker of neuroaxonal injury that can be measured through blood testing. Because of its accessibility and increasing availability in both research and clinical settings, NfL has emerged as a promising tool for tracking disease activity and treatment response across a range of neurologic disorders. At the same time, important limitations remain, including its lack of disease specificity and susceptibility to confounding factors such as age, renal dysfunction, and other neurologic comorbidities.

At the 2026 Peripheral Nerve Society Annual Meeting, held June 13-16 in Maastricht, Netherlands, Brett Morrison, MD, PhD, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, presented on current and future biomarkers of peripheral nerve disorders. In a conversation with NeurologyLive®, Morrison discussed the growing role of NfL in neuromuscular disease, its applications in conditions such as CIDP and GBS, and why clinicians should view biomarkers as one component of a broader monitoring strategy that also incorporates patient-reported outcomes, disability scales, and clinical examination.

Click here for more PNS 2026 coverage.