Proteomic discovery of prognostic protein biomarkers for persisting problems after mild traumatic brain injury

Abstract Some individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as concussion, have neuropsychiatric and physical problems that last longer than a few months. Symptoms following mTBI are not only impacted by the kind and severity of the injury but also by the post-injury experience and the individual's responses to it, making the persistence of mTBI particularly difficult to predict. We aimed to identify prognostic blood-based protein biomarkers predicting 6-month outcomes, in light of the clinical course after the injury, in a longitudinal mTBI cohort (N = 42). Among 420 target proteins quantified by multiple-reaction monitoring-mass spectrometry assays of blood samples, 31, 43, and 15 proteins were significantly associated with the poor recovery of neuropsychological symptoms at