Recurrent chest blast exposure can lead to brain inflammation, oxidative stress, and mental disorders in soldiers. However, the mechanism that underlies brain injury caused indirectly by chest blasts remains unclear. It is urgent to find additional reliable biomarkers to reveal the intimate details of the pathogenesis of this phenomenon. We used the term tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling combined with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to screen for differentially expressed proteins in rat brain at different time points after a chest blast. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD025204. Gene Ontology (GO), the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), and Cytoscape analyses were used to analyze the proteomic profiles of blast-exposed rats. In addition, we performed Western blotting to verify protein levels. We identified 6,931 proteins, of which 255 were differentially expressed and 43, 84, 52, 97, and 49 were identified in brain tissues at 12, 24, 48, and 72 h and 1 week after chest blast exposure, respectively. In this study, the GO, KEGG, Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins, and Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) analyses indicated that brain damage caused by chest blast exposure involved many important biological processes and signaling pathways, such as inflammation, cell adhesion, phagocytosis, neuronal and synaptic damage, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. Furthermore, Western blotting confirmed that these differentially expressed proteins and affected signaling pathways were associated with brain damage caused by chest blast exposure. This study identifies potential protein biomarkers of brain damage caused indirectly by chest blast and new targets for the treatment of this condition.

反复的胸部爆炸暴露可导致士兵的脑部炎症、氧化应激和精神障碍。然而，胸部爆炸间接引起脑损伤的机制尚不清楚。迫切需要找到更多可靠的生物标志物来揭示这种现象发病机制的细节。我们使用术语串联质量标签 (TMT) 标记结合液相色谱-串联质谱 (LC-MS/MS) 来筛选胸部爆炸后不同时间点大鼠大脑中的差异表达蛋白质。数据可用通过带有标识符 PXD025204 的 ProteomeXchange。基因本体论 (GO)、京都基因和基因组百科全书 (KEGG)、注释、可视化和集成发现数据库 (DAVID) 和 Cytoscape 分析用于分析暴露于爆炸的大鼠的蛋白质组学特征。此外，我们进行了蛋白质印迹以验证蛋白质水平。我们鉴定了 6,931 种蛋白质，其中 255 种差异表达，43、84、52、97 和 49 种分别在胸部爆炸暴露后 12、24、48 和 72 小时和 1 周的脑组织中鉴定。在这项研究中，GO、KEGG、蛋白质直系同源群簇和用于检索相互作用基因/蛋白质的搜索工具（STRING）分析表明，胸爆暴露引起的脑损伤涉及许多重要的生物学过程和信号通路，如炎症、细胞粘附、吞噬作用、神经元和突触损伤、氧化应激和细胞凋亡。此外，蛋白质印迹证实这些差异表达的蛋白质和受影响的信号通路与胸部爆炸暴露引起的脑损伤有关。这项研究确定了由胸爆间接引起的脑损伤的潜在蛋白质生物标志物，以及治疗这种疾病的新靶点。