Examining the Role of Cholinergic Inputs in Brain Blood Flow in Gulf War Illness: A Possible New Target for Treatment
Abstract
Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a multi-symptom diagnosis that affects approximately one in four Veterans deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1991. Principal characteristics of GWI include fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and cognitive impairment. Neurological injury in the form of cognitive problems is a common complaint. Many Veterans with GWI have complained of these problems, with a majority indicating that these issues have a moderate to severe effect on their daily life. We know from research in elderly patients that cognitive function is affected by reductions in brain blood flow. Our lab has found that Veterans with GWI have a significantly greater decrease in brain blood flow when standing. We believe that the impairment in brain blood flow is related to cognitive complaints in these Veterans with GWI. Though the causes of GWI remain unclear, neurotoxic exposure and neurological impairment have recently received greater attention. Recent work from our laboratory shows that enhancing certain neurological signals can improve brain blood flow when standing in healthy people. The purpose of this study is to determine if we can translate our previous findings that improved brain blood flow into a new method of improving brain blood flow in Veterans with GWI. The brain is like a muscle during exercise; when activity of a muscle (or in this case the brain) increases such as during thinking, blood flow must increase to meet the demand of the activity. If blood flow does not increase, then the increase in activity cannot be met and this results in reduced performance. In the case of the brain, this might present as trouble in concentrating and/or remembering certain things. This proposal will attempt to answer two basic questions: (1) Do Veterans with GWI show reduced brain blood flow while standing and/or during thinking tasks? (2) Can increasing a specific neural activity (cholinergic) improve brain blood flow and improve concentration and ability to remember things? By answering these questions, we will be able to translate these findings into a novel way of treating cognitive issues in Veterans with GWI. We could then directly move to a clinical trial to test if enhancing cholinergic neural activity could be a new treatment for Veterans with reduced brain blood flow.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 19, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910568
Entities
People
- Jorge M Serrador
Organizations
- United States Army
- Veterans Biomedical Research Institute