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Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) causes major disability as a consequence of recurrent demyelinating events and neuronal loss. Biomarkers identifying different phenotypes of recurrence or tissue damage might be useful to guide individualized therapy. Herein, we evaluated serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) as a potential biomarker in both adult and pediatric MOGAD patients. Forty-nine patients with MOGAD (37 adults, 12 children) and 71 healthy controls (HCs) (56 adults, 15 children) were enrolled prospectively from September 2019 to April 2021 at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and the Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. sNfL levels were determined using ultrasensitive single-molecule array assay and correlated with clinical parameters. The sNfL levels in MOGAD adults in a relapsed state (median: 31.0 pg/mL) were higher than those in a remission state (8.1 pg/mL, p = 0.001) and in HC adults (10.3 pg/mL, p = 0.004). Similar results were observed in children (relapse: 46.8 pg/mL vs. remission: 13.1 pg/mL, p = 0.001; and vs. HCs: 8.2 pg/mL, p = 0.007) sNfL levels were correlated with recent relapses within 60 days (multivariate: β = 2.02, p = 0.003), seizures (multivariate: β = 2.50, p = 0.021) and brain lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a recent relapse (multivariate: β = 1.72, p = 0.012). Our study showed that sNfL levels are beneficial for identifying recent relapses and seizures and suggest that adult and pediatric MOGAD patients had similar sNfL levels.

Human ALX1 gene (ALX Homeobox 1) is a protein coding gene and gene ontology annotations related to this gene include DNA-binding transcription factor activity and protein heterdimerization activity. It is necessary for survival of forebrain mesenchyme and may be involved in development of cervix. However, the function of the gene has yet to be determined in humans. Here we generated an ALX1 homozygous human embryonic stem cell line (WAe001-A-060) by a CRISPR/Cas9 system. The WAe001-A-060 has a normal undifferentiated morphology and karyotype, pluripotency and three germ layers differentiation potential in vivo.