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Screening for novel central nervous system biomarkers in veterans with Gulf War Illness.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Abou-Donia, MB; Conboy, LA; Kokkotou, E; Jacobson, E; Elmasry, EM; Elkafrawy, P; Neely, M; Bass, CRD; Sullivan, K
Published in: Neurotoxicol Teratol
May 2017

Gulf War illness (GWI) is primarily diagnosed by symptom report; objective biomarkers are needed that distinguish those with GWI. Prior chemical exposures during deployment have been associated in epidemiologic studies with altered central nervous system functioning in veterans with GWI. Previous studies from our group have demonstrated the presence of autoantibodies to essential neuronal and glial proteins in patients with brain injury and autoantibodies have been identified as candidate objective markers that may distinguish GWI. Here, we screened the serum of 20 veterans with GWI and 10 non-veteran symptomatic (low back pain) controls for the presence of such autoantibodies using Western blot analysis against the following proteins: neurofilament triplet proteins (NFP), tubulin, microtubule associated tau proteins (Tau), microtubule associated protein-2 (MAP-2), myelin basic protein (MBP), myelin associated glycoprotein (MAG), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), calcium-calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII) and glial S-100B protein. Serum reactivity was measured as arbitrary chemiluminescence units. As a group, veterans with GWI had statistically significantly higher levels of autoantibody reactivity in all proteins examined except S-100B. Fold increase of the cases relative to controls in descending order were: CaMKII 9.27, GFAP 6.60, Tau 4.83, Tubulin 4.41, MAG 3.60, MBP 2.50, NFP 2.45, MAP-2 2.30, S-100B 1.03. These results confirm the continuing presence of neuronal injury/gliosis in these veterans and are in agreement with the recent reports indicating that 25years after the war, the health of veterans with GWI is not improving and may be getting worse. Such serum autoantibodies may prove useful as biomarkers of GWI, upon validation of the findings using larger cohorts.

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Published In

Neurotoxicol Teratol

DOI

EISSN

1872-9738

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

61

Start / End Page

36 / 46

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Veterans
  • Toxicology
  • Persian Gulf Syndrome
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Biomarkers
 

Citation

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Abou-Donia, M. B., Conboy, L. A., Kokkotou, E., Jacobson, E., Elmasry, E. M., Elkafrawy, P., … Sullivan, K. (2017). Screening for novel central nervous system biomarkers in veterans with Gulf War Illness. Neurotoxicol Teratol, 61, 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2017.03.002
Abou-Donia, Mohamed B., Lisa A. Conboy, Efi Kokkotou, Eric Jacobson, Eman M. Elmasry, Passent Elkafrawy, Megan Neely, Cameron R “Dale” Bass, and Kimberly Sullivan. “Screening for novel central nervous system biomarkers in veterans with Gulf War Illness.Neurotoxicol Teratol 61 (May 2017): 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2017.03.002.
Abou-Donia MB, Conboy LA, Kokkotou E, Jacobson E, Elmasry EM, Elkafrawy P, et al. Screening for novel central nervous system biomarkers in veterans with Gulf War Illness. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2017 May;61:36–46.
Abou-Donia, Mohamed B., et al. “Screening for novel central nervous system biomarkers in veterans with Gulf War Illness.Neurotoxicol Teratol, vol. 61, May 2017, pp. 36–46. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2017.03.002.
Abou-Donia MB, Conboy LA, Kokkotou E, Jacobson E, Elmasry EM, Elkafrawy P, Neely M, Bass CRD, Sullivan K. Screening for novel central nervous system biomarkers in veterans with Gulf War Illness. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2017 May;61:36–46.
Journal cover image

Published In

Neurotoxicol Teratol

DOI

EISSN

1872-9738

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

61

Start / End Page

36 / 46

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Veterans
  • Toxicology
  • Persian Gulf Syndrome
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Biomarkers