Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Brain Injury / 10.07.2017
An Ultra-Early Inflammatory Biomarker of Traumatic Brain Injury
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Lisa J Hill PhD
Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Research Fellow
Neuroscience and Ophthalmology
Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham UK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability among young adults and, according to the World Health Organization, by 2020 TBI will become the world’s leading cause of neurological disability across all age groups. Early and correct diagnosis of traumatic brain injury is one of the most challenging aspects faced by clinicians. Being able to detect compounds in the blood that help to determine how severe the brain injury is would be of great benefit to patients and aid in their treatment. Inflammatory markers are particularly suited for biomarker discovery as TBI leads to very early alterations in inflammatory proteins. The discovery of reliable biomarkers for the management of TBI would improve clinical interventions.
We collected blood samples from 30 injured patients within the first hour of injury prior to the patient arriving at hospital and analysed them. Analysis of protein biomarkers from blood taken within the first hour of injury has never been carried out until now. We used a panel of 92 inflammation-associated human proteins when analysing the blood samples. The analysis identified three inflammatory proteins, known as CST5, AXIN1 and TRAIL, as novel biomarkers of TBI.
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