An assessment of current traumatic brain injury care and clinical potential of biomarker candidates
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major global contributor to death and disability. Despite extensive research efforts aimed at developing TBI therapeutic agents and medical interventions, none have proven successful in treating TBI across all severities. Additionally, current diagnostic tools and outcome measures are symptom-based, offering limited capacity to manage the heterogeneous nature of TBI. To address this gap, fluid-based TBI biomarkers may serve as an objective, efficient and quantifiable biomeasurement to complement current TBI care. TBI biomarker candidates evaluated in this review include Neuron specific enolase (NSE), ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1), S100B, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neurofilament (NF), myelin basic protein (MBP), tau protein and MicroRNA (miRNA). Although S100B and GFAP hold the most clinical potential to assist TBI diagnosis, variations in study designs and statistical analysis hinder reliable comparisons and ability to reach definite conclusions. Therefore, standardizing biomeasurement methods, immunoassay platforms and data standardization are essential to improve TBI biomarker research and clinical use. Additionally, utilizing a Big Data Analysis (BDA) approach could integrate diverse TBI data and reveal patterns that may optimize both TBI research and clinical care. While TBI remains one the most complex and challenging medical conditions, the emerging role of biomarkers in conjunction with data science may offer a promising avenue to strengthen TBI interventions.
Description
2025