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Updated: Apr 26, 2026
Non-invasive Assessment of Microvascular and Endothelial Function
Published on: January 29, 2013
Serum biomarkers to evaluate the integrity of the neurovascular unit
1Dept. of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States.
Insights
New biomarkers show promise for diagnosing and managing neonatal brain injury. These markers can assess severity, monitor treatment, and predict outcomes in infants with neonatal encephalopathy.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neonatal Medicine
- Biomarker Research
Background:
- Neonatal encephalopathy (NE) and brain injury from prenatal hypoxia-asphyxia affect many infants.
- Current clinical practice rarely utilizes biomarkers for NE management.
- There is a critical need for tools to assess injury severity, monitor treatment, and predict outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review potential biomarkers of the neurovascular unit in NE.
- To categorize biomarkers for assessing encephalopathy severity, monitoring disease progression, and predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes.
- To highlight the potential of these biomarkers in guiding clinical decisions and therapy.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of studies on biomarkers in neonatal brain injury.
- Categorization of biomarkers into specific neurovascular unit targets and general inflammatory cytokines.
- Summary of biomarker applications in assessing severity, monitoring progression, and predicting outcomes.
Main Results:
- Specific biomarkers include glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1), S100B, and neuron-specific enolase (NSE).
- General inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1b (IL-1b), and phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain (pNF-H) are also discussed.
- These biomarkers offer potential for early detection, severity assessment, and therapeutic monitoring.
Conclusions:
- Biomarkers hold significant potential for improving the care of neonates with brain injury.
- Routine clinical use of these biomarkers could enhance screening, monitoring, and treatment efficacy.
- Further research and validation are needed to integrate these biomarkers into standard neonatal care.
Abstract:
Biomarkers have the potential to enable the clinicians to screen infants for brain injury, monitor progression of disease, identify injured brain regions, assess efficacy of neuroprotective therapies, and offer hope to identify the timing of the injury, thus shedding light on the potential pathophysiology and the most effective therapy. Currently, clinicians do not routinely use biomarkers to care for neonates with Neonatal Encephalopathy (NE) and brain injury due to prenatal hypoxia-asphyxia. This review will cover potential biomarkers of the neurovascular unit in the setting of NE that (i) can help assess the degree or severity of encephalopathy at birth; (ii) can help monitor progression of disease process and efficacy of neuroprotective therapy; (iii) can help assess neurodevelopmental outcome. These biomarkers will be summarized in two categories: 1) Specific biomarkers targeting the neurovascular unit such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1), S100B, and neuron specific enolase (NSE) and 2) general inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1b (IL-1b), and pNF-H, among others.
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