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Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of biomarker discovery approaches

From: Current trends in biomarker discovery and analysis tools for traumatic brain injury

Discovery Approach

Advantages

Disadvantages

MicroRNA transcriptomics

miRNAs are more abundant in human biofluids than proteins, making them more accessible as biomarkers [43]

miRNA expression may vary due to specific conditions such as fasting, introducing variability in analysis [43]

Neuroproteomics

Elucidate signal transduction events associated with biochemical processes of injury [63]

Large datasets require sophisticated bioinformatics software [17]

Metabolomics/Lipidomics

Metabolites proximity to CSF and brain and ease of lipid transport make them easily detectable [73, 79]

Subject’s environment affects metabolome, possibly producing unwanted variation in data [74]

Phage display

Screening can directly take advantage of heterogeneous injury environment [100]

Requires high throughput sequencing to prevent selection of false positives [104]

Diffusion tensor imaging

Sensitive to detection of diffuse axonal injury and white matter microstructure [111]

Prone to partial volume effect, which may produce false positives [125]

Single-photon emission computed tomography

More sensitivity than CT for detecting lesions, capable of detecting cerebral blood flow abnormalities [109, 131]

Less specificity detecting in vivo morphology [131]

Machine learning

Uncovers nonlinear and higher order effects of predictive variables to model complex relationships [149, 137]

High volume of data required for accurate prediction [148]