Browsing by Author "Muratbekov, Alisher"

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    OMICS-GUIDED IDENTIFICATION OF NOVEL NON-INVASIVE BIOMARKERS OF SPORTS-RELATED CONCUSSIONS
    (Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, 2024) Muratbekov, Alisher
    Background. Sports-related concussion is a traumatic brain injury caused by a direct blow to the head, neck, or body, resulting in the transmission of impulsive force to the brain, which occurs during sports and exercise-related activities. It is a widely spread injury in the sports world that needs to be taken seriously. Late-diagnosed or under-treated concussions might decrease the performance of an athlete or even lead to another injury. Nevertheless, the diagnosis of concussion is still a topic of concern. A new potential and convenient method of screening for concussion may be the determination of saliva biomarkers. Since saliva collection does not require the presence of medical personnel and can be carried out on the sideline during the game. Objective. The objective of the study is to perform OMICS-guided identification of novel non-invasive biomarkers of sport-associated concussions. Methods. Potential concussion-related genes were identified after an analysis of the Traumatic Brain Injury-associated transcriptomic dataset. Ten people from University Kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu clubs were recruited. After the application of the Balance Error Scoring System and King-Devick test, two participants were presumed as concussed and 4 saliva samples (2 Cases vs. 2 Controls) were collected to perform RNA extraction followed by cDNA conversion and qPCR. Results. 7 potential genes were identified for concussion screening, namely: HOXA5, TSPAN2, FAM174B, DAAM2, CLCF1, GABRE, and TIMELESS. The possibility of utilization of selected genes as diagnostic biomarkers for sports-related concussions is yet to be discovered. Limitations. Limitations include a small sample size and limited cohort variety (gender, age, race, etc.) which makes it impossible to generalize study results. Conclusion. Our study shows a possible new approach for OMICS-dedicated studies, as the used methodology can fit other topics of interest related to gene expression profiles.