ABSTRACT
Central nervous system (CNS) trauma is a growing public health concern resulting from various types of cerebral insults, leading to acute neurological and non-neurological manifestations that can leave life-long consequences. To date, there are no standardized therapeutic and management protocols dealing with brain trauma. Current research is uncovering novel biomarkers that can aid in diagnosis, management and therapy. Current status of brain injury biomarkers includes the presence, absence or altered expression levels of certain neural (neuronal astrocytic or glial) related genes/proteins, protein degradation products and microRNAs which are discussed in different chapters of this book. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the new emerging role of autoantibodies-which have been long identified-as new generation biomarkers in the areas of neurotrauma, neuropsychiatric disorders and neurotoxicity. In this chapter, we will discuss the genesis and implications of autoantibodies in neurotrauma; focusing on the area of spinal cord injury (SCI) and shedding light on recent application in traumatic brain injury (TBI). In addition, the potential pathogenic mechanistic role of autoantibodies in the areas of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurotoxicity will be evaluated as this may reflect on the neural injury observed in brain trauma. The key value of these new generation biomarkers is thatunlike their corresponding autoantigens that may serve as
acute markers of injury-these identified autoantibodies represent long-lasting, chronic signature biomarkers that can be associated with advanced chronic stages of injury sequelae. Such work has the potential to be applied in the fields of neurotrauma and neuropsychiatric fields that may reflect underlying mechanisms and can be utilized for diagnosis, staging and treatment guidance as well as be the target for therapy.
