LAUSR

Importance: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which results from trauma to the head can be a debilitating condition. If the patient luckily has no complications immediately, the long-term effects like gradually progressing tauopathy can seriously affect the individual's quality of life. This review aims to identify a panel of plasma neurobiomarkers that can be used to screen CTE in adults. Observations: This is a scoping review based on the methodological framework presented by Arksey & O'Malley, in 2005. Keywords were used to search the literature and articles were screened to identify the plasma biomarkers involved in chronic brain injury. A total of 38 plasma protein biomarkers were identified. A rubric was designed keeping in view the characteristics highlighted in the literature. The biomarkers were then scored on the basis of the rubric devised. The biomarkers which obtained the highest scores were Neurofilament Light chain (NfL), Phosphorylated forms of tau (P-Tau), and Neuron specific enolase (NSE) with 12, 12, and 11 scores respectively. Both NfL and p-Tau are present in serum and Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with equal sensitivity. Both originate mainly from the brain, are present at the pico level of quantification, and represent chronic brain injury. NSE on the other hand is detected with higher sensitivity in CSF than in blood. The rest of its qualities equate with those of NfL and p-Tau. Conclusion and relevance: In conclusion, NfL, p-Tau, and NSE have the optimum characteristics that are the best fit for diagnosing CTE as compared to other biomarkers. The specificity in terms of origin from the brain, representation of chronic brain trauma, and detecting the smallest amount present in plasma with almost the same detection sensitivity as CSF, are the qualities that make these biomarkers the most suitable ones. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.