Gulf War Illness and Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis: Treatment with Probiotics and Microbiota Transfer Therapy
Abstract
US military personnel deployed to the Gulf War from 1990-1991 are having a number of health problems that cannot be explained according to existing medical science. These health concerns include problems with thinking and memory, problems with the stomach and intestines (for example, irritable bowel syndrome), and alterations in mood (feeling blue or down or in panic mode). These symptoms have now been grouped by federal government health officials into a syndrome called Gulf War Illness (GWI). The existence of GWI has been controversial but was recently verified by the Committee on Gulf War and Health. The cause of GWI is not known and there are no really effective treatments. We propose that the bacteria that normally live in our bodies, and especially in our intestines (called the gut microbiome), are disrupted in GWI. It is known that if the gut microbiome goes out of its normal and healthy balance, health problems will emerge. For example, people with intestinal problems have a severe imbalance in their gut microbiome. Re-balancing the microbiome cures the intestinal problems. Therefore, the objective of this project is to use an established mouse model of GWI to determine how this illness alters the gut microbiome. We will then attempt to restore the microbiome to normal using microbiota transfer (from healthy mice) and probiotics (like yogurt). These therapies are used extensively and with great success to treat humans (and Veterans) and animals especially for intestinal problems. The reason for carrying out the research in this project is to determine, for the first time since GWI has been recognized as a real health concern for Veterans, if an out-of-balance gut microbiome can explain the symptoms that make up the very complex disorder known as GWI. The existence of GWI was disputed for many years after the Gulf War, and many medical professionals felt that it involved too many different symptoms to be part of a single syndrome. Now that it has been accepted by an expert panel of authorities on Gulf War and Health that GWI really exists, the fact still remains that we do not know what causes GWI and there is no effective treatment for it. How can an illness cause problems with the stomach and intestines and the brain in the same patient? In the past couple of years, a new factor is showing great promise to help with many illnesses, and it is known as the gut-brain axis. If communication along this axis becomes disturbed or goes out of balance, problems in both organs can arise. If we learn through this project that the gut-brain axis is disturbed in GWI, it would have a very significant and important application -- the gut microbiome that has become imbalanced can be re-balanced by treatments that are already in use by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for treating Veterans with gut problems. These treatments are probiotics and fecal transplantation, and they work very well (about 90% effective) in cases of gut infection. If it is discovered that Veterans with GWI have gut microbiomes that are out of balance, their guts can be brought back into balance with these treatments with a very low risk. Given that there is no effective treatment for GWI, our Gulf War Veterans have been suffering with this disorder for more than 25 years and it is time to try something new. The benefits for Veterans far outweigh the very small risks associated with this approach to the study of GWI. How long will it take to get to the point where Veterans can benefit from this research? This initial project is planned for 2 years and will discover three things: (1) Does GWI cause the gut microbiome to go out of balance in mice? (2) Can the GWI-microbiome be re-balanced using probiotics and microbiota transfer? (3) Will rebalancing the microbiome make the symptoms of GWI go away? The knowledge gained using mice in the first part of this project can be quickly transferred into VA clinics in future tests, so i
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 16, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910380
Entities
People
- Donald Kuhn
Organizations
- United States Army
- Wayne State University