The study reports that serum metabolites are sensitive to severity of TBI as well as predict the patient outcomes.
The findings are indicative of disruption in blood brain barrier and of protective response and altered TBI metabolism.
Metabolites significantly improved the prediction of patient outcomes when added to the established clinical model.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an example of a medical condition where there are still major lacks in diagnostics, outcome prediction, and the therapy development. Since the blood-brain barrier prevents diffusion of most water-soluble molecules with molecular mass over 500 Da, here we hypothesized that circulating small molecules (metabolites) are a potential source of TBI markers. Based on serum metabolomic studies in two independent cohorts, we found that metabolites are sensitive to severity of TBI as well as predict the patient outcomes. The findings of this study may pave the way for new diagnostic tools for TBI.