COllaborative Neuropathology NEtwork Characterizing ouTcomes of TBI (CONNECT-TBI)

Douglas H Smith; Jean-Pierre Dollé; Kamar E Ameen-Ali; Abigail Bretzin; Etty Cortes; John F Crary; Kristen Dams-O'Connor; Ramon Diaz-Arrastia; Brian L Edlow; Rebecca Folkerth; Lili-Naz Hazrati; Sidney R Hinds; Diego Iacono; Victoria E Johnson; C Dirk Keene; Julia Kofler; Gabor G Kovacs; Edward B Lee; Geoffrey Manley; David Meaney; Thomas Montine; David O Okonkwo; Daniel P Perl; John Q Trojanowski; Douglas J Wiebe; Kristine Yaffe; Thomas McCabe; William Stewart

doi:10.1186/s40478-021-01122-9

COllaborative Neuropathology NEtwork Characterizing ouTcomes of TBI (CONNECT-TBI)

Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2021 Mar 1;9(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s40478-021-01122-9.

Authors

Douglas H Smith¹, Jean-Pierre Dollé², Kamar E Ameen-Ali³, Abigail Bretzin⁴, Etty Cortes^{5

6

7}, John F Crary^{6

7}, Kristen Dams-O'Connor^{8

9}, Ramon Diaz-Arrastia¹⁰, Brian L Edlow^{11

12}, Rebecca Folkerth¹³, Lili-Naz Hazrati^{14

15

16}, Sidney R Hinds^{17

18}, Diego Iacono¹⁹, Victoria E Johnson², C Dirk Keene²⁰, Julia Kofler²¹, Gabor G Kovacs^{22

23}, Edward B Lee²⁴, Geoffrey Manley^{25

26}, David Meaney^{27

28}, Thomas Montine²⁹, David O Okonkwo³⁰, Daniel P Perl³¹, John Q Trojanowski³², Douglas J Wiebe⁴, Kristine Yaffe³³, Thomas McCabe³⁴, William Stewart^{35

36}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. smithdou@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
² Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
³ Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Pathology, Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
⁶ Neuropathology Brain Bank and Research Core, Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease, Departments of Pathology and Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Department of Pathology, Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
⁸ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
¹¹ Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 175 Cambridge Street - Suite 300, Boston, MA, USA.
¹² Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
¹³ Department of Forensic Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁵ Department of Pathology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁶ Canadian Concussion Center, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁷ Brain Tissue Repository and Neuropathology Core, Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM), Uniformed Services University (USU), Bethesda, MD, USA.
¹⁸ Chronic Effects of NeuroTrauma Consortium (CENC), Fort Detrick, MD, USA.
¹⁹ The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF), Bethesda, MD, USA.
²⁰ Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
²¹ Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
²² Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (CRND) and Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Krembil Discovery Tower, 60 Leonard Ave, Toronto, ON, Canada.
²³ Laboratory Medicine Program and Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
²⁴ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁵ Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Ave, Rm M779, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²⁶ Brain and Spinal Injury Center, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, 1001 Potrero Ave, Bldg. 1, Rm 101, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²⁷ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁸ Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁹ Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
³⁰ Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
³¹ DoD/USU Brain Tissue Repository and Neuropathology Core, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University (USU), Bethesda, MD, USA.
³² Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
³³ Department of Neurology, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³⁴ School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
³⁵ Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK. william.stewart@glasgow.ac.uk.
³⁶ Department of Neuropathology, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, 1345 Govan Rd, Glasgow, G51 4TF, Queen, UK. william.stewart@glasgow.ac.uk.

Abstract

Efforts to characterize the late effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been in progress for some time. In recent years much of this activity has been directed towards reporting of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former contact sports athletes and others exposed to repetitive head impacts. However, the association between TBI and dementia risk has long been acknowledged outside of contact sports. Further, growing experience suggests a complex of neurodegenerative pathologies in those surviving TBI, which extends beyond CTE. Nevertheless, despite extensive research, we have scant knowledge of the mechanisms underlying TBI-related neurodegeneration (TReND) and its link to dementia. In part, this is due to the limited number of human brain samples linked to robust demographic and clinical information available for research. Here we detail a National Institutes for Neurological Disease and Stroke Center Without Walls project, the COllaborative Neuropathology NEtwork Characterizing ouTcomes of TBI (CONNECT-TBI), designed to address current limitations in tissue and research access and to advance understanding of the neuropathologies of TReND. As an international, multidisciplinary collaboration CONNECT-TBI brings together multiple experts across 13 institutions. In so doing, CONNECT-TBI unites the existing, comprehensive clinical and neuropathological datasets of multiple established research brain archives in TBI, with survivals ranging minutes to many decades and spanning diverse injury exposures. These existing tissue specimens will be supplemented by prospective brain banking and contribute to a centralized route of access to human tissue for research for investigators. Importantly, each new case will be subject to consensus neuropathology review by the CONNECT-TBI Expert Pathology Group. Herein we set out the CONNECT-TBI program structure and aims and, by way of an illustrative case, the approach to consensus evaluation of new case donations.

Keywords: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy; Concussion; Dementia; Neurodegenerative disease; Traumatic brain injury.

Publication types

Case Reports
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aged
Athletes
Athletic Injuries / complications
Athletic Injuries / pathology
Autopsy
Brain / pathology
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy / pathology*
Dementia / etiology
Dementia / pathology
Disease Progression
Humans
Information Services*
Male
Neurodegenerative Diseases / etiology
Neurodegenerative Diseases / pathology
Neuropathology / organization & administration*
Neuropathology / trends
Tissue Banks / organization & administration*
Tissue Banks / trends

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding