Pre-clinical Approach to Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Gulf War Illness
Abstract
In a rat model of Gulf War Illness (GWI) we tested the hypothesis that mitochondrial dysfunction in central to GWI pathology and that treatment with dichloroacetate (DCA) will be beneficial. GWI was induced by exposure to a combination of chemicals used during the Gulf war to protect personnel (pyridostigmine bromide, permethrin, DEET) daily for a period of one month. DCA treatment was performed 5 months post-exposure and lasted 1 month. Thus far we tested 16 male rats (GWI, GWI-DCA, control, and control-DCA, n=4). Results from this small number of animals suggest that GWI rats have increased anxiety-like behavior however, no effect of DCA on anxiety was detected. GWI-DCA rats appeared to regain the memory loss detected in GWI rats in the Morris water maze test. Densitometric analysis of coronal brain sections immunostained with antibodies to Iba1showed that DCA treatment decrease the expression of Iba1, a marker of microglia activation, in the dentate gyrus of GWI down to the levels detected in control rats. These results imply that the animal model we use is appropriate to test our hypothesis and that DCA may have beneficial effects on GWI-related behavior and pathology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1119062
Entities
People
- Alpaslan Dedeoglu
- Christina Tognoni
- Isabel Carreras
- Jonathan Lopez
Organizations
- Boston VA Research Institute