Clinical association of serum LncRNA THRIL levels with injury severity and prognosis in traumatic brain injury

This research explored the association of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) THRIL expression with traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity and progression. A total of 138 patients with TBI and 106 controls were enrolled. Patients with TBI were stratified by Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) severity scores. Serum levels of THRIL were quantified using reverse transcription–quantitative PCR (RT–qPCR). Spearman correlation analysis assessed the relationship between THRIL levels and GCS scores, while logistic regression identified potential risk factors influencing injury severity. Patients were grouped into good and poor prognosis by the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve assessed the diagnostic efficacy across TBI severity levels and the prognostic predictive performance. Target binding between THRIL and miR-23a-3p was confirmed through dual-luciferase reporter assay (DLR) and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays. Patients with TBI exhibited significantly higher THRIL levels, which exhibited a strong inverse correlation with both GCS severity and GOS prognostic scores. Patients with moderate-to-severe TBI showed significantly higher serum THRIL levels than mild TBI cases, peaking in severe TBI. Serum THRIL showed 81.67% sensitivity and 74.07% specificity in differentiating mild from moderate cases, and 72.55% sensitivity with 88.33% specificity in distinguishing severe from moderate cases. Higher THRIL levels correlated with worse prognosis, demonstrating 83.33% sensitivity and 91.67% specificity for predicting adverse outcomes. Mechanistically, miR-23a-3p directly binds to THRIL. Serum THRIL shows promise as a potential biomarker for stratifying TBI severity and predicting unfavorable prognoses. Our findings may offer novel insights into optimizing the clinical management of patients with TBI.