Dataset Information

Elevated Tau in Military Personnel Relates to Chronic Symptoms Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To understand the relationships between traumatic brain injury (TBI), blood biomarkers, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and postconcussive syndrome symptoms.

Design

Cross-sectional cohort study using multivariate analyses.

Participants

One hundred nine military personnel and veterans, both with and without a history of TBI.

Main measures

PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C); Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI); Ohio State University TBI Identification Method; Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9); Simoa-measured concentrations of tau, amyloid-beta (A?) 40, A?42, and neurofilament light (NFL).

Results

Controlling for age, sex, time since last injury (TSLI), and antianxiety/depression medication use, NFL was trending toward being significantly elevated in participants who had sustained 3 or more TBIs compared with those who had sustained 1 or 2 TBIs. Within the TBI group, partial correlations that controlled for age, sex, TSLI, and antianxiety/depression medication use showed that tau concentrations were significantly correlated with greater symptom severity, as measured with the NSI, PCL, and PHQ-9.

Conclusions

Elevations in tau are associated with symptom severity after TBI, while NFL levels are elevated in those with a history of repetitive TBIs and in military personnel and veterans. This study shows the utility of measuring biomarkers chronically postinjury. Furthermore, there is a critical need for studies of biomarkers longitudinally following TBI.

SUBMITTER: Pattinson CL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6814502 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan/Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Elevated Tau in Military Personnel Relates to Chronic Symptoms Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

Pattinson Cassandra L CL Shahim Pashtun P Taylor Patricia P Dunbar Kerri K Guedes Vivian A VA Motamedi Vida V Lai Chen C Devoto Christina C Peyer Jordan J Roy Michael J MJ Gill Jessica M JM

The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation 20200101 1

<h4>Objective</h4>To understand the relationships between traumatic brain injury (TBI), blood biomarkers, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and postconcussive syndrome symptoms.<h4>Design</h4>Cross-sectional cohort study using multivariate analyses.<h4>Participants</h4>One hundred nine military personnel and veterans, both with and without a history of TBI.<h4>Main measures</h4>PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C); Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI); Ohio ...[more]

PMID: 31033745

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Project description:OBJECTIVE: Approximately one-quarter of military personnel who deployed to combat stations sustained one or more blast-related, closed-head injuries. Blast injuries result from the detonation of an explosive device. The mechanisms associated with blast exposure that give rise to traumatic brain injury (TBI), and place military personnel at high risk for chronic symptoms of post-concussive disorder (PCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression are not elucidated. METHODS: To investigate the mechanisms of persistent blast-related symptoms, we examined expression profiles of transcripts across the genome to determine the role of gene activity in chronic symptoms following blast-TBI. Active duty military personnel with (1) a medical record of a blast-TBI that occurred during deployment (n = 19) were compared to control participants without TBI (n = 17). Controls were matched to cases on demographic factors including age, gender, and race, and also in diagnoses of sleep disturbance, and symptoms of PTSD and depression. Due to the high number of PCD symptoms in the TBI+ group, we did not match on this variable. Using expression profiles of transcripts in microarray platform in peripheral samples of whole blood, significantly differentially expressed gene lists were generated. Statistical threshold is based on criteria of 1.5 magnitude fold-change (up or down) and p-values with multiple test correction (false discovery rate <0.05). RESULTS: There were 34 transcripts in 29 genes that were differentially regulated in blast-TBI participants compared to controls. Up-regulated genes included epithelial cell transforming sequence and zinc finger proteins, which are necessary for astrocyte differentiation following injury. Tensin-1, which has been implicated in neuronal recovery in pre-clinical TBI models, was down-regulated in blast-TBI participants. Protein ubiquitination genes, such as epidermal growth factor receptor, were also down-regulated and identified as the central regulators in the gene network determined by interaction pathway analysis. CONCLUSION: In this study, we identified a gene-expression pathway of delayed neuronal recovery in military personnel a blast-TBI and chronic symptoms. Future work is needed to determine if therapeutic agents that regulate these pathways may provide novel treatments for chronic blast-TBI-related symptoms.

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Dataset Information

Elevated Tau in Military Personnel Relates to Chronic Symptoms Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective

Design

Participants

Main measures

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Elevated Tau in Military Personnel Relates to Chronic Symptoms Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

Similar Datasets

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