Stanislav Svetlov
University of Florida, USA
Title: Genomic biomarkers of military blast brain injury compared to mechanical impact TBI
Biography
Biography: Stanislav Svetlov
Abstract
Despite progress in understanding traumatic brain injury (TBI), the mechanisms and biomarkers of neurorepair during combat blast-induced TBI remain to be elucidated. Important question to be addressed is whether blast-induced TBI signatures are similar to those after mechanical brain injury, e.g. concussion, and what may be the differences pertinent to differential diagnostics and therapeutic enhancement of brain recovery. This includes gene expression (mRNA) and its regulation (miRNA), proteomics and its associated area of metabolomics. In this study, we compared side-by-side genomic signatures of neuro injury and neuro repair in head-directed blast overpressure exposure (OBI) vs. mechanical cortical impact (CCI) and analyzed using neurosystems biology approach presenting graphic interaction map. There was a significant difference in expression of 994 genes within blast exposure groups and in 1532 genes within CCI vs. control with an overall overlap of 579 genes. Parametric and nonparametric analyses revealed significant differences in genes of neural development and repair, between blast exposures and CCI. Specifically, brain achaete-scute complex-like 1 (ASCL1/Mash1) was up-regulated, while ROBO-1/Slit and NEDD4 were down-regulated after blast exposure and changed in opposite direction after mechanical CCI. Results show disparities as well as overlaps in the expression of genes between military and civilian type of brain injury. This will help to reveal specific biomarkers of each brain insult and assist in developing diagnostics of chronic posttraumatic encephalopathy. Novel approaches in the development of neurorepair diagnostics and enhance brain recovery will be discussed.