Monitoring of serum biomarkers in patients with acute spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious clinical obstacle, which causes permanent disability to more than 180,000 people every year worldwide. The severity of the initial injury plays a significant role in the nature and amplitude of the secondary response and consequently in the choice of appropriate therapeutic interventions. However, the current clinical measures for characterization of SCI severity are based on functional tests that cannot be applied immediately following injury because they are often influenced by shock, other injuries and drugs or alcohol. To develop a novel indicator to diagnose the severity of SCI during the acute phase, we plan to perform global microRNA (miRNA) profiling in the blood serum of healthy and injured individuals. Based on the results, we will identify miRNAs whose expression levels are correlated with the severity of SCI. Received data will be related with the personal medical background of each patient to work out robust diagnostic criteria for the estimation of SCI severity during its acute phase. Our data will provide important information for understanding the pathophysiology of SCI and will contribute to development of novel diagnostic strategies.