Eye Pain and Photophobia: Ocular Signs and Symptoms As Markers of Central Abnormalities in Gulf War Illness

NIH RePORTER · VA · I01 · · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Upon return from 1991 Gulf War (GW), many veterans began suffering from a wide range of health symptoms of unknown etiology. These symptoms encompass 6 major domains including cognitive and sleep, pain, neurological and cognitive, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and skin manifestations, which have come to be categorized as Gulf War Veterans’ illnesses (GWVI). GWVI is a multisystem disease estimated to affect 25% of GW Era veterans. Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration have been postulated to underlie GWVI symptoms. A need in the field is to better define GWVI, and distinguish symptom clusters within GWVI, in order to develop targeted treatments. Our central hypothesis is that a comprehensive neurosensory testing protocol can be applied to the study of GWVI to distinguish GWVI case groups from controls and to identify sub-groups within GWVI. This protocol consists of applying quantitative sensory testing (QST) strategies to evaluate the integrity of sensory processing mechanisms (Aim 1), examining trigeminal neural circuit responses to light using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Aim 2), and examining neuro- inflammatory signatures in blood (Aim 3) in individuals with GWVI and appropriate controls. The combined results of these three aims will allow us to examine which neurosensory metrics, in isolation or combination, are most useful in predicting GWVI phenotypes. Along with forwarding our understanding of GWVI pathophysiology, these data can be used to develop tests that can be used in the clinical arena to sub-group individuals based on underlying mechanisms, an important first step to developing targeted therapies.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10701095
Project number
1I01CX002633-01
Recipient
MIAMI VA HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Principal Investigator
Anat Galor
Activity code
I01
Funding institute
VA
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
Award type
1
Project period
2024-04-01 → 2028-03-31