- June 5, 2026
Topic/Product:
CNS Disease Panel 120
Disease Area:
Exercise
Sample Type:
Dried Plasma Spot (DPS), Serum, Tasso plasma
Abstract
Blood-based biomarkers are increasingly used to investigate brain health, but collecting venous blood is difficult in remote and field settings. Capillary microsampling offers a practical alternative, although the ability to delay processing and its agreement with gold-standard venous blood require validation. We evaluated Tasso+, a minimally invasive upper-arm capillary blood collection system, for measuring neurological and host-response biomarkers in plasma and serum during an exercise-based protocol. Sampling occurred before, immediately after, and approximately 24-to-36 hours after exercise; Tasso+ samples were processed with or without a 72-hour room-temperature delay. Tasso+ samples were compared with matched venous blood, and Capitainer SEP10 dried plasma spots were also evaluated, using Quanterix Simoa 4plexD+ and Alamar Biosciences NULISAseq CNS panel. Tasso+ enabled reliable measurement of several key biomarkers, even after delayed processing. These findings support capillary microsampling for neurological biomarker studies where venepuncture is challenging, including field-based research and participant-led remote sampling.
Authors and Affiliations
Owen Swann¹˒², Sophie Hicks¹˒², Caleigh Lynch³˒⁴˒⁵, Amie Wallman-Jones³˒⁴˒⁵, Maryam Shoai¹˒², Rachel Mulvaney¹˒², Bárbara Fernandes Gomes¹˒², Eleftheria Kodosaki¹˒², Margherita Tecilla³˒⁴, Mazdak Ghajari⁶, Ben Jones⁷˒⁸˒⁹˒¹⁰˒¹¹, Simon Kemp¹²˒¹³, TBI-REPORTER Biomarker Group¹⁴, Richard Sylvester⁵˒¹⁵, Matt Cross⁷˒¹⁰, Keith Stokes¹²˒¹⁶˒¹⁷, Mathew G Wilson⁵˒¹⁸, David K Menon¹⁹, Amanda Heslegrave¹˒², Henrik Zetterberg¹˒²˒²⁰˒²¹˒²²˒²³˒²⁴, David J Sharp³˒⁴˒²⁵, Thomas D Parker²˒³˒⁴
1. UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
2. Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
3. UK Dementia Research Institute Centre for Care Research & Technology Centre, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, UK.
4. Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, UK.
5. Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH), University College London, London W1T 7HA, UK.
6. HEAD Lab, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ, UK.
7. Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) Centre, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
8. England Performance Unit, Rugby Football League, Manchester, UK.
9. Division of Physiological Sciences and Health Through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport Research Centre, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
10. PREM Rugby, London, UK.
11. School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia.
12. Rugby Football Union, Twickenham, UK.
13. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
14. TBI-Reporter, https://tbi-reporter.uk/
15. Acute Stroke and Brain Injury Unit, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
16. Centre for Health and Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
17. UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), University of Bath, Bath, UK.
18. HCA Healthcare Research Institute, HCA Healthcare, London W1T 7HA, UK.
19. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
20. Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal 431 80, Sweden.
21. Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal 431 80, Sweden.
22. Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of WisconsinMadison, Madison, WI 53792, USA.
23. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53792, USA.
24. Centre for Brain Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
25. Centre for Injury Studies, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, UK.