Characterizing Concussion Using Brain Derived Exosomes

ABSTRACT

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) currently afflicts 357,000 enlisted military men and women in the US Armed Services. For the most common form of TBI, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) most patients recover within a year following the incident, but 10-20 of mild cases result in a long-term disability including seizures and emotional and behavioral issues. Although much has been learned about molecular changes in the brain following injury, access to these biomarkers following mTBI is lacking. The accurate diagnosis and precise individual clinical management of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is limited by the lack of accessible molecular biomarkers that are informative regarding the unique mixture of injury mechanisms in each TBI patient.