Maggie L Bartlett, Heather Goux, Linwood Johnson, Kevin L Schully, Melissa Gregory, Joost Brandsma, Josh G Chenoweth, Danielle V Clark, Luis Felipe Rivera, Carlos Lezcano-Coba, Amy Y Vittor, Ronald Hayes, Josefrancisco Galué, Jean-Paul Carrera, Darci R Smith
{"title":"Retrospective Analysis of Blood Biomarkers of Neurological Injury in Human Cases of Viral Infection and Bacterial Sepsis","authors":"Maggie L Bartlett, Heather Goux, Linwood Johnson, Kevin L Schully, Melissa Gregory, Joost Brandsma, Josh G Chenoweth, Danielle V Clark, Luis Felipe Rivera, Carlos Lezcano-Coba, Amy Y Vittor, Ronald Hayes, Josefrancisco Galué, Jean-Paul Carrera, Darci R Smith","doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiae445","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background Blood biomarkers of neurological injury could provide a rapid diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) injury caused by infections. An FDA-approved assay for mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) measures glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1), which signal astrocyte and neuronal injury, respectively. Here, we assessed the applicability of this biomarker assay for determining infection-induced brain injury. Methods We measured serum levels of GFAP and UCH-L1 retrospectively in serum samples from three study populations: 1) human cases infected with Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) and Madariaga virus (MADV) (n = 73), 2) human sepsis patients who were severely ill or diagnosed with encephalitis (n = 66), and 3) sepsis cases that were subsequently evaluated for cognitive impairment (n = 64). Results In the virus infection group, we found elevated GFAP for VEEV (p = 0.014) and MADV (p = 0.011) infections, which correlated with seizures (p = 0.006). In the bacterial sepsis group, GFAP was elevated in cases diagnosed with encephalitis (p = 0.0007) and correlated with headaches (p = 0.0002). In the bacterial sepsis cases with a later cognitive assessment, elevated GFAP (p = 0.0057) at study enrollment was associated with cognitive impairment six months later with a positive prognostic capacity of 79% (CI: 66–95%; p = 0.0068). Conclusions GFAP and UCH-L1 levels measured using an FDA-approved assay for TBI may indicate brain injury resulting from viral or bacterial infections and could predict the development of neurological sequelae.","PeriodicalId":501010,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiae445","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background Blood biomarkers of neurological injury could provide a rapid diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) injury caused by infections. An FDA-approved assay for mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) measures glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1), which signal astrocyte and neuronal injury, respectively. Here, we assessed the applicability of this biomarker assay for determining infection-induced brain injury. Methods We measured serum levels of GFAP and UCH-L1 retrospectively in serum samples from three study populations: 1) human cases infected with Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) and Madariaga virus (MADV) (n = 73), 2) human sepsis patients who were severely ill or diagnosed with encephalitis (n = 66), and 3) sepsis cases that were subsequently evaluated for cognitive impairment (n = 64). Results In the virus infection group, we found elevated GFAP for VEEV (p = 0.014) and MADV (p = 0.011) infections, which correlated with seizures (p = 0.006). In the bacterial sepsis group, GFAP was elevated in cases diagnosed with encephalitis (p = 0.0007) and correlated with headaches (p = 0.0002). In the bacterial sepsis cases with a later cognitive assessment, elevated GFAP (p = 0.0057) at study enrollment was associated with cognitive impairment six months later with a positive prognostic capacity of 79% (CI: 66–95%; p = 0.0068). Conclusions GFAP and UCH-L1 levels measured using an FDA-approved assay for TBI may indicate brain injury resulting from viral or bacterial infections and could predict the development of neurological sequelae.