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Background: Recent findings suggest that the plasma axonal structural protein, neurofilament light (NFL) chain, may serve as a potential blood biomarker for early signs of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given the need for early detection of neurodegenerative disorders, the current study investigated the associations between regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in brain regions associated with neurodegenerative disorders and memory function with plasma NFL in AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: We recruited 29 AD, 76 MCI, and 39 HCs from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database in the current cross-sectional study. We used Pearson's correlation models adjusted for the effect of age, sex, and APOE genotype to investigate the association between plasma NFL and rCBF. Results: We found non-significant differences in age (F (2, 141) = 1.304; P = 0.275) and years of education (F (2, 141) = 0.013; P = 0.987). Additionally, we found significant differences between groups in terms of MMSE scores (F (2, 141) = 100.953; P < 0.001). Despite the observation of significantly reduced rCBF in AD and MCI groups versus HCs, we did not detect significant differences in plasma NFL between these groups. We found significant negative associations between plasma NFL and rCBF in various AD-related regions, these findings were only observed after analyses in all participants, and were observed in HCs alone and no significant associations were observed in the AD or MCI groups. Conclusion: These outcomes add to our current understanding surrounding the use of rCBF and plasma NFL biomarkers as tools for early detection and diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. A conclusion might be that the association between NFL and impaired rCBF exists before the clinical symptoms appear. Further longitudinal studies with a large sample size should be performed to examine the correlation between plasma NFL and rCBF in order to understand these complex relationships., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest in this study., (Copyright © 2023 Iranian Neurological Association, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.)

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a common monogenic disease which is associated with high serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and leads to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Early diagnosis and effective treatment strategy can significantly improve prognosis. Recently, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have emerged as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and innovative targets for therapeutics. Non-coding RNAs have essential roles in the regulation of LDL-C homeostasis, suggesting that manipulation and regulating ncRNAs could be a promising theranostic approach to ameliorate clinical complications of FH, particularly cardiovascular disease. In this review, we briefly discussed the mechanisms and pathophysiology of FH and novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of FH. Moreover, the theranostic effects of different non-coding RNAs for the treatment and diagnosis of FH were highlighted. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of ncRNA-based therapies vs. conventional therapies were discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Keshavarz Alikhani, Pourhamzeh, Seydi, Shokoohian, Hossein-khannazer, Jamshidi-adegani, Al-Hashmi, Hassan and Vosough.)