Unique diagnostic signatures of concussion in the saliva of male athletes: the Study of Concussion in Rugby Union through MicroRNAs (SCRUM)

I can very obviously see a possible use for this in stroke and TBI, but no one in stroke leadership will do anything with this. Their motto must be hear no research, see no research, do no research!

hear no evil,see no evil,speak no evil

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unique diagnostic signatures of concussion in the saliva of male athletes: the Study of Concussion in Rugby Union through MicroRNAs (SCRUM)

1. http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9430-4723Valentina Di Pietro1,2,3,
2. Patrick O'Halloran1,3,
3. Callum N Watson1,
4. Ghazala Begum3,
5. Animesh Acharjee2,4,5,
6. Kamal M Yakoub2,
7. Conor Bentley2,
8. David J Davies1,2,
9. Paolo Iliceto6,
10. Gabriella Candilera6,
11. David K Menon7,
12. Matthew J Cross8,9,
13. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5049-2838Keith A Stokes8,10,
14. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3250-2713Simon PT Kemp10,11,
15. Antonio Belli1,2,3

1. Correspondence to Dr Valentina Di Pietro, University of Birmingham, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, Birmingham 9,000, UK; v.dipietro@bham.ac.uk

Abstract

Objective To investigate the role of salivary small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) in the diagnosis of sport-related concussion.

Methods Saliva was obtained from male professional players in the top two tiers of England’s elite rugby union competition across two seasons (2017–2019). Samples were collected preseason from 1028 players, and during standardised head injury assessments (HIAs) at three time points (in-game, post-game, and 36–48 hours post-game) from 156 of these. Samples were also collected from controls (102 uninjured players and 66 players sustaining a musculoskeletal injury). Diagnostic sncRNAs were identified with next generation sequencing and validated using quantitative PCR in 702 samples. A predictive logistic regression model was built on 2017–2018 data (training dataset) and prospectively validated the following season (test dataset).

Results The HIA process confirmed concussion in 106 players (HIA+) and excluded this in 50 (HIA−). 32 sncRNAs were significantly differentially expressed across these two groups, with let-7f-5p showing the highest area under the curve (AUC) at 36–48 hours. Additionally, a combined panel of 14 sncRNAs (let-7a-5p, miR-143-3p, miR-103a-3p, miR-34b-3p, RNU6-7, RNU6-45, Snora57, snoU13.120, tRNA18Arg-CCT, U6-168, U6-428, U6-1249, Uco22cjg1,YRNA_255) could differentiate concussed subjects from all other groups, including players who were HIA− and controls, immediately after the game (AUC 0.91, 95% CI 0.81 to 1) and 36–48 hours later (AUC 0.94, 95% CI 0.86 to 1). When prospectively tested, the panel confirmed high predictive accuracy (AUC 0.96, 95% CI 0.92 to 1 post-game and AUC 0.93, 95% CI 0.86 to 1 at 36–48 hours).

Conclusions SCRUM, a large prospective observational study of non-invasive concussion biomarkers, has identified unique signatures of concussion in saliva of male athletes diagnosed with concussion.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-103274