Proteomic biomarkers for blast neurotrauma: Targeting cerebral edema, inflammation, and neuronal death cascades

Proteomics for blast traumatic brain injury (bTBI) research represents an exciting new approach that can greatly help to address the complex pathology of this condition. Antibody-based platforms, antibody microarrays (AbMA), and reverse capture protein microarrays (RCPM) can complement the classical methods based on 2D gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry (2DGE/MS). These new technologies can address problematic issues, such as sample complexity, sensitivity, quantitation, reproducibility, and analysis time, which are typically associated with 2DGE/MS. Combined with bioinformatics analysis and interpretation of primary microarray data, these methods will generate a new level of understanding about bTBI at the level of systems biology. As biological and clinical knowledge and the availability of these systems become more widely established, we expect that AbMA and RCPM will be used routinely in clinical diagnostics, and also for following therapeutic progress. At the technical level, we anticipate that these platforms will evolve to accommodate comprehensive, high-speed, label-free analysis on a human proteome-wide scale.