Exploring New and Promising Genetic Biomarkers for Evaluating Traumatic Brain Injuries: A Case-Control Study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomarker Discovery
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity globally, affecting millions annually.
• Accurate and timely diagnosis of TBI across different severities is crucial for effective patient management.
• Current diagnostic methods may not fully capture the dynamic nature of TBI over time and varying injury severity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic precision of four blood-based biomarkers: AKT3, GSK-3β, hsa-miR-16-5p, and MALAT-1.
• To assess the utility of these biomarkers for TBI diagnosis, prognosis, and follow-up at different time points post-injury.
• To differentiate biomarker expression patterns across varying TBI severities (mild, moderate, severe).

Main Methods:

• Recruitment of 30 TBI patients and 10 healthy controls, matched for age and sex.
• Classification of TBI patients into mild (mTBI), moderate (modTBI), and severe (sTBI) based on the Glasgow Coma Scale.
• Measurement of biomarker expression levels (AKT3, GSK-3β, hsa-miR-16-5p, MALAT-1) using RT-PCR at baseline, 5 days, and 30 days post-injury.

Main Results:

• Upregulated expression of AKT3 and hsa-miR-16-5p, and downregulated GSK-3β observed in TBI patients compared to controls across all time points.
• mTBI patients exhibited higher hsa-miR-16-5p levels than modTBI and sTBI patients.
• MALAT-1 levels significantly increased only in severe TBI cases.

Conclusions:

• AKT3, hsa-miR-16-5p, and GSK-3β are effective diagnostic biomarkers for TBI at initial assessment and up to 30 days post-injury.
• MALAT-1 demonstrates diagnostic value in severe TBI and prognostic utility for up to 30 days.
• GSK-3β is identified as a highly effective biomarker for detecting mild TBI.