Development of a Traumatic Brain Injury Assessment Score Using Novel Biomarkers Discovered Through Autoimmune Profiling
Abstract
The high rate of head trauma in deployed military personnel and in civilians involved in automobile accidents and in contact sports is well recognized. The extent to which these head traumas result in mild brain injury, however, cannot be determined due to the lack of suitable diagnostic tools, including biomarkers. At present, there is no effective way to assess mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the risks it brings for underlying neuropathology and second injury syndrome. For more than a decade, traditional approaches in biomarker research have failed to identify a means for diagnosing mild TBI. Much of this work has focused on single proteins thought to be relevant to TBI but subsequently shown to be ineffective for the diagnosis of mild TBI. It is now clear that new approaches to the discovery of biomarkers and their applications in diagnosis are needed. The goals of this research were to identify novel brain proteins targeted by TBI-induced autoantibodies and to determine if these proteins contribute to a circulating biomarker signature for TBI. We reasoned that the humoral immune response to brain injury may serve as a pathway for the discovery of novel biomarker proteins for TBI.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 03, 2013
- Accession Number
- AD1012897
Entities
People
- John E. Buonora
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences