Cerebral palsy biomarker

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that is attributed to non-progressive injury or malformation that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. The motor disorders in cerebral palsy are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition, communication, behaviour, and by epilepsy. Cerebral palsy is a complex disorder that is likely to be of multifactorial origin. Epidemiological studies have shown that the origins of most CP are prior to labor. A number of clinical risk factors for cerebral palsy have been described in the literature including preterm birth, low birth weight, inflammation, maternal infection during pregnancy and placenta pathology. Hypoxia at birth may be primary or secondary to preexisting pathology, but the currently known clinical risk factors do not explain the majority of cases. Many of these risk factors may have a genetic component. Several single nucleotide polymorphisms, DNA copy number variations and epigenetic patterns increase genetic susceptibility for cerebral palsy. Whole genome sequencing and gene expression studies may extend the percentage of cases with a genetic pathway. Clinical risk factors could act as triggers for CP where there is genetic susceptibility. These new findings should refocus research about the causes of these complex and varied neurodevelopmental disorders on the search for biomarkers of the risk of cerebral palsy. Genomics, proteomics and metabolomics have huge potential for deepening our understanding of many complex diseases by identifying diagnostic and prognostic panels of biomarkers, especially in various neurological disorders, including cerebral palsy.