Gulf War Illness-associated increases in blood levels of interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein: biomarker evidence of inflammation

• Published in: BMC research notes 2019-12, Vol.12 (1), p.816-5, Article 816
• Main Authors: Butterick, Tammy A, Trembley, Janeen H, Hocum Stone, Laura L, Muller, Clemma J, Rudquist, Rebecca R, Bach, Ronald R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Backup software; Biological markers; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Blood; Blood levels; C-reactive protein; C-Reactive Protein - metabolism; Case-Control Studies; Chronic Disease; Chronic fatigue syndrome; Chronic illnesses; Chronic inflammation; Chronic multisymptom illness; Cognition & reasoning; Cytokines; Disabilities; Disease control; Diseases; EDTA; Fatigue; Gene expression; Gulf War; Gulf War Illness; Gulf War syndrome; Health; Hepatocytes; Humans; Hypotheses; Immunoassay; Inflammation; Inflammation - blood; Interleukin 6; Interleukin-6 - blood; Interleukins; Medical research; Memory; Military personnel; Mood; Pain; Persian Gulf Syndrome - blood; Persian Gulf War; Persian Gulf War veterans; Plasma; Proinflammatory cytokines; Rash; Regression analysis; Research Note; Respiratory tract diseases; Skin; Skin diseases; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Veterans; War; Well being
• ISSN: 1756-0500; 1756-0500
• DOI: 10.1186/s13104-019-4855-2

Gulf War Illness is a chronic multisymptom disorder severely impacting the health and well-being of many Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Symptoms that define the disease include pain, fatigue, mood and memory impairments, gastrointestinal problems, lung disorders, and skin rashes. In our previous biomarker study, we discovered Gulf War Illness-associated proinflammatory blood biomarkers. Therefore, we hypothesized that chronic inflammation causes the symptoms that define this disorder. Testing the chronic inflammation hypothesis is the objective of this study. The biomarker fingerprint of Gulf War Illness is the end-product of a cascade of proinflammatory cytokine signals. In particular, the observed increase in C-reactive protein predicts a corresponding increase in interleukin 6, the cytokine that stimulates hepatocytes to produce C-reactive protein. Therefore, in this study we measured potential upstream cytokine signals in plasma samples from Gulf War Veterans. As predicted, a positive correlation between interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein was observed.