Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious public health concern for which sensitive and objective diagnostic methods remain lacking. While advances in neuroimaging have improved diagnostic capabilities, the complementary use of molecular biomarkers can provide clinicians with additional insight into the nature and severity of TBI. In this study, a panel of eight metabolites involved in distinct pathophysiological processes related to concussion was quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Specifically, the newly developed method can simultaneously determine urinary concentrations of glutamic acid, homovanillic acid, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, methionine sulfoxide, lactic acid, pyruvic acid, N-acetylaspartic acid, and F2α-isoprostane without intensive sample preparation or preconcentration. The method was systematically validated to assess sensitivity (method detection limits: 1-20 μg/L), accuracy (81-124% spike recoveries in urine), and reproducibility (relative standard deviation: 4-12%). The method was ultimately applied to a small cohort of urine specimens obtained from healthy college student volunteers. The method presented here provides a new technique to facilitate future work aiming to assess the clinical efficacy of these putative biomarkers for noninvasive assessment of TBI.
Keywords: HPLC-MS/MS; biomarkers; noninvasive assessment; traumatic brain injury (TBI); urine analysis.