Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0339614

Publication Title

PLoS One

Volume

21

Issue

1

Pages

e0339614

Abstract

Background

Clinicians often face challenges in concussion care due to a heavy reliance on subjective patient input. Recently, research has sought objective biomarkers, like salivary microRNAs, to improve concussion management. However, significant limitations hinder the use of microRNAs as a diagnostic tool, including the cumulative effects of a contact sport season. A better understanding of the response to a contact sport season would help researchers and clinicians interpret expression changes at the time of injury in the context of seasonal variation. in Therefore, this study investigated the reliability of previously identified salivary microRNA targets across one contact sport season.

Methods

This longitudinal study involved 50 male NCAA Division I football players (21 ± 1.6 years; 187.5 ± 6.9 cm; 103.1 ± 19.8 kg). Saliva was collected before the season's first contact practice and within 72 hours of the season's final game. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) experiments were conducted using pre-selected microRNA targets. Non-parametric tests compared expressions between time points (α ≤ 0.05).

Results

No significant differences were found between pre- and post-season miRNA (p = .07-.46). However, intraclass correlation coefficients revealed low to moderate reliability across the season (ICC = -.04-.65).

Conclusions

Our study found no significant differences in time points for target microRNA, but ICC statistics indicated low reliability across the season. These findings suggest that microRNA expression may be variable throughout the season regardless of concussive trauma, and clinicians should be aware that changes in microRNA expression should not be directly attributed to concussive forces. Researchers and clinicians should not rely on the presented set of microRNA to make clinical decisions for potential concussive injuries.

Rights

© 2026 Campbell et al.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability

Article states: "All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files."

ORCID

0000-0003-0879-2308 (Campbell), 0000-0002-9154-1667 (Zamponi), 0000-0003-3171-9141 (Cavallario), 0000-0002-0621-2819 (Mollica)

Original Publication Citation

Campbell, T. R., Zamponi, M., Leathers, D., Cavallario, J., Martinez, J. C., & Mollica, P. A. (2026). Stability of salivary microRNA measures across an NCAA Division I football season: Implications for microRNA as a biomarker of concussion. PLoS One, 21(1), Article e0339614. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0339614

Additional Files
journal.pone.0339614.s001.xlsx (182 kB)
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