1 Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2 Division of Genetics and Development, Krembil Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Neuroscientist. 2019 Feb;25(1):8-21. doi: 10.1177/1073858417742125. Epub 2017 Nov 22.
The ideal biomarker for central nervous system (CNS) trauma in patients would be a molecular marker specific for injured nervous tissue that would provide a consistent and reliable assessment of the presence and severity of injury and the prognosis for recovery. One candidate biomarker is the protein tau, a microtubule-associated protein abundant in the axonal compartment of CNS neurons. Following axonal injury, tau becomes modified primarily by hyperphosphorylation of its various amino acid residues and cleavage into smaller fragments. These posttrauma products can leak into the cerebrospinal fluid or bloodstream and become candidate biomarkers of CNS injury. This review examines the primary molecular changes that tau undergoes following traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, and reviews the current literature in traumatic CNS biomarker research with a focus on the potential for hyperphosphorylated and cleaved tau as sensitive biomarkers of injury.
用于评估中枢神经系统（CNS）创伤患者的理想生物标志物应该是一种对损伤组织具有特异性的分子标志物，能够对损伤的存在、严重程度和恢复预后进行一致、可靠的评估。候选生物标志物之一是蛋白 tau，它是一种在 CNS 神经元轴突区丰富的微管相关蛋白。在轴突损伤后，tau 主要通过其各种氨基酸残基的过度磷酸化和裂解成较小片段而发生改变。这些创伤后产物可以渗漏到脑脊液或血液中，成为 CNS 损伤的候选生物标志物。本文综述了 tau 在创伤性脑损伤和脊髓损伤后的主要分子变化，并回顾了创伤性 CNS 生物标志物研究的当前文献，重点关注过度磷酸化和裂解的 tau 作为损伤敏感生物标志物的潜力。
