A Novel Quantitative, Multianalyte Immunoassay to Detect Neuroinflammation following Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects up to 10 million people worldwide. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) accounts for between 70-90% of all TBI cases. An estimated 10-20% of all veterans of recent U.S military conflicts have sustained mTBI. The primary goal of TBI biomarker research is to identify molecular changes in the brain that could help determine if the brain was injured and help monitor the recovery process. Proinfl ammatory biomarkers are released following brain injury and induce a neuroinflammatory response. The prolonged presence of these biomarkers can affect neurons and brain functioning. Inflammation can also alter cell phenotypes and cause increased cytokine production and neural damage. A single blood inflammatory biomarker may not indicate brain pathology; however, evaluating multiple biomarkers may be more informative and allow for a more accurate diagnosis. We evaluated multiple neuroinflammatory markers using Simple PlexTM, a novel quantitative, multianalyte immunoassay platform that delivers high precision and accuracy with ≤ 25 uL of sample. Our results identify a potential inflammatory profile for TBI.