A preliminary model of football-related neural stress that integrates metabolomics with transcriptomics and virtual reality

Nicole L. Vike, Sumra Bari, Khrystyna Stetsiv, Alexa Walter, Sharlene Newman, Keisuke Kawata, Jeffrey J. Bazarian, Zoran Martinovich, Eric A. Nauman, Thomas M. Talavage, Linda Papa, Semyon M. Slobounov, Hans C. Breiter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research suggests contact sports affect neurological health. This study used permutation-based mediation statistics to integrate measures of metabolomics, neuroinflammatory miRNAs, and virtual reality (VR)-based motor control to investigate multi-scale relationships across a season of collegiate American football. Fourteen significant mediations (six pre-season, eight across-season) were observed where metabolites always mediated the statistical relationship between miRNAs and VR-based motor control (pSobelperm ≤ 0.05; total effect > 50%), suggesting a hypothesis that metabolites sit in the statistical pathway between transcriptome and behavior. Three results further supported a model of chronic neuroinflammation, consistent with mitochondrial dysfunction: (1) Mediating metabolites were consistently medium-to-long chain fatty acids, (2) tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolites decreased across-season, and (3) accumulated head acceleration events statistically moderated pre-season metabolite levels to directionally model post-season metabolite levels. These preliminary findings implicate potential mitochondrial dysfunction and highlight probable peripheral blood biomarkers underlying repetitive head impacts in otherwise healthy collegiate football athletes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number103483
JournaliScience
Volume25
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 21 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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