Tackling Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Transdisciplinary Series of Original Research Articles to Advance Knowledge on Disease Diagnosis, Risk Factors, and Mechanisms

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease that has been associated with repetitive head impacts (RHI), such as those from contact and collision sport play, military service and domestic violence, among other causes. Given the millions of individuals actively or previously exposed to RHI, CTE may indeed represent a major public health concern. CTE can only be diagnosed by neuropathological examination that shows a perivascular deposition of ptau in neurons and astrocytes at the depths of sulci. Significant scientific advancements in the field of CTE have been made, but several knowledge gaps remain. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease or other related fields, there are far fewer experts and investigators in the field of CTE who would have available data on this topic. The neuropathological diagnostic criteria of this disorder are preliminary, and risk factors and mechanisms for CTE are unclear. CTE cannot be diagnosed during life because the clinical presentation and course are ill-defined, and validated in vivo biomarkers do not yet exist.

This Research Topic will serve as a scholarly, transdisciplinary, and cutting-edge series of original empirical research articles devoted to the study of the neuropathology, mechanisms, risk factors, clinical presentation and in vivo biomarkers of CTE. We will not solicit for review articles; although, systematic reviews and/or meta-analytic studies may be acceptable. To our knowledge, this Research Topic will be one of the first research collections of empirical studies devoted to the study of CTE. Our goal is to obtain a total of at least 10 separate empirical studies to form this research series.

This series will involve national and international experts in CTE, neurodegenerative diseases, and/or RHI and traumatic brain injury (TBI) who will submit research representative of the recent tremendous advances made in the field of CTE. We welcome contributions from researchers with access to brain banks who study the neuropathology of CTE, including investigations that examine the minimum neuropathological criteria for diagnosis of CTE, distinguish CTE from other aging-related tauopathies, and identify risk factors and clinical correlates of CTE neuropathology. We also seek investigations using innovative neuropathological and translational research methods to facilitate mechanism discovery, as well as identify and clarify risk and protective factors, clinical presentations of CTE and other long-term consequences of RHI and TBI. Additionally, Experimental studies by basic scientists will also be welcome, to provide up-to-date data on the potential mechanisms of CTE. Finally, we welcome submissions by clinicians and clinical researchers with access to data from living participants to contribute empirical studies on the clinical presentation of CTE, in addition to possible risk factors and in vivo imaging and fluid biomarkers.