Spitting image: New test helps identify concussions
HUMAN SPIT may hold the key to better understanding concussions in sports.
The scientific name for it is salivary diagnostic for concussion injuries, but really, researchers are trying to figure out if a football player’s saliva can tell team doctors something about his brain.
According to research, following a concussion, injured brains release pieces of genetic cells called microRNAs, which can appear in blood and saliva. When compared to baseline results collected from healthy athletes, the data collected from human spit may be able to tell doctors if an athlete has suffered a concussion or not.
The research is being funded by Syracuse-based Quadrant Biosciences and could potentially change the way concussions are diagnosed, adding a layer of certainty to a science that is far from exact.
Right now, the science of tracking concussions is murky, according to experts. When it comes to diagnosing concussions in children, pediatricians rely on “guesswork,” Quadrant Biosciences CEO Rich Uhlig told the Daily News.
After his own son suffered a concussion playing hockey six years ago, Uhlig, who spent his previous career in banking, turned his attention to trying to find a better way to diagnosing head injuries in sports.
Quadrant Biosciences has been funding groundbreaking microRNA research conducted at Penn State Medical Center and SUNY Upstate Medical University. Their testing, which measures fragments of genetic material in saliva, was found to be almost 90 percent accurate in identifying concussions in adolescents last year.
“This will have a profound effect on the way clinicians approach concussion management and treatment, and positively change the trajectory of recovery for so many kids,” Uhlig said. “We fully expect that this line of inquiry will lead to similar applications in adults.”
The concussion survey currently favored by doctors at about 70 percent accurate, according to JAMA Pediatrics medical journal.
“The use of salivary microRNA in this study is both novel and clinically relevant. To our knowledge, no single biomarker or biomarker panel has demonstrated adequate test characteristics to be widely used as an objective measure for diagnosing or monitoring recovery from a concussion or for predicting those who are at highest risk for a prolonged recovery,” according to the JAMA Pediatrics study.
“If validated in larger, multisite clinical trials, using this salivary microRNA panel to diagnose and manage concussions could be a major advancement to the field.”
Quadrant’s research is focused on children, but the results of their work has been so compelling, the Pro Football Hall of Fame recently partnered with Quadrant to use the technology to monitor the health of retired NFL players using the company’s assessment tools, including groundbreaking saliva testing that was scheduled to begin in April.
“The most difficult part is not knowing if or how your brain health is changing, especially in ways that can be subtle and hard to see unless you have a way of monitoring it objectively over time,” Jack Youngblood said in a press release announcing the partnership. “Being able to be regularly tested by a clinician close to home, see my results in an understandable report, and discuss those with an expert will make a huge difference. Having this expert guidance and support is exactly what we retired players and our families need right now.”
The traction Quadrant is making could not come at a better time.
Last week, a new study revealed added dangers of allowing children younger than 12 years old to play tackle football.
Published in Annals of Neurology, the study found CTE in the brains of 211 of 246 brains of deceased former amateur and pro football players, and showed kids who started playing at a younger age began showing cognitive and emotional symptoms associated with degenerative brain damage more than a decade earlier than kids who started playing after they turned 12.
Despite dozens of rules changes, football may actually be more dangerous than ever before. Concussions were up by more than 15 percent last season and the 281 that were reported in 2017 were the most on record for a single season since 2012, when the NFL started making injury data more public.
The league attributed the increase to a rise in preseason injuries. During the 2017 regular season, there were actually two fewer concussions reported than in 2015, but no matter how the data is viewed, there is no denying that football remains a dangerous game — and may only be getting more hazardous.
While young children and current players are at immediate risk, former NFL players have already suffered damage. The partnership with Quadrant will allow players access to the ClearEdge Brain Health Toolkit, which was developed by SUNY researchers and consists of a battery of assessments that monitor and track head health, making note of changes in cognitive function, balance and other symptoms over time.
In addition to that, saliva will be collected for testing.
“(This testing battery) will enable us to longitudinally monitor patients with regards to their brain health; not unlike the way we screen heart and kidney function with age,” Dr. Anthony Petraglia, Quadrant Bioscience Chief Medical Officer and Neurosurgeon at Rochester Regional Health in Rochester, N.Y., said. “This will further our ability to utilize practical functional and epigenetic biomarkers to assess changes in brain function over time and determine the efficacy of various therapeutics targeting brain aging and disease.”