Role of Exosomes in Gulf War Illness

Role of Exosomes in Gulf War Illness

Alvin Sherman Library

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a multi-symptom chronic disorder affecting over 200,000 veterans deployed during the Gulf War from 1990-1991. GWI veterans deployed during the Persian Gulf War were exposed to multiple chemical warfare agents. Veterans with GWI experience chronic pain, fatigue, neurocognitive symptoms, gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances, etc. GWI-associated biomarkers have revealed a proinflammatory biomarker signature, a discovery that has recently led to research further exploring the inflammatory response within GWI patients.

Exosomes are small extracellular particles that range in diameter between 50-200 nm and have specific markers. Exosomes contain DNA, proteins, and RNA and carry this information from one cell to another. Exosomes help with cell-to-cell communication and can contribute to both promote and inhibit inflammation.

Within this project, exosomes have been isolated from healthy controls (HCs) and GWI patients and have been quantified and validated for usage in co-culturing with lymphocytes. This project seeks to better understand Gulf War Illness (GWI) and possible future therapeutic avenues through the investigation of exosome and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) co-culturing. Pooled exosomes from GWI patients and PBMCs from HCs will be co-cultured. We will also co-culture GWI patient PBMCs and exosomes from HCs. RNA will then be extracted from the PBMC samples to then undergo RNA sequencing. From these results, inflammatory responses in healthy PBMCs pooled with GWI origin exosomes as well as healthy exosomes pooled with patient PBMCs will be understood.