Genetic Basis of Individual Differences in Susceptibility to Gulf War Illness
Abstract
This New Investigator Award to Dr. Jones funded basic science research into the genetics of why some Gulf War veterans became sick and others, all else being equal, did not. The research was carried out using a genetic reference population of mice, 30 lines of the BXD recombinant inbred strains and following the experimental model of James OCallaghan and Diane Miller. The treatment was 7 days of corticosterone in the drinking water followed on the 8th day by injection of a sarin surrogate, diisopropylflurophosphate, an irreversible cholinesterase inhibitor. As the presumed basis for Gulf War Illness as neuroinflammation, our endpoints were differential expression of proinflammatory cytokine genes from the prefrontal cortex. We found robust strain effects on the expression of interleukin 1b and were able to nominate a candidate gene, Spon1 as underlying individual differences in response to the treatment. Further work using RNA-seq identified another, Ccr6.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1128347
Entities
People
- Byron C Jones
Organizations
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center