ArticleEBioMedicine2017
Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) and Gulf War Illness (GWI): HLA-DRB1*13:02 Spares Subcortical Atrophy in Gulf War Veterans.
Article in EBioMedicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II genetic relationships with brain imaging measures: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Anthrax Vaccines in the 21st Century.Vaccines · 2024Review
- Longitudinal evaluation of structural brain alterations in two established mouse models of Gulf War Illness.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Mitochondrial impairment but not peripheral inflammation predicts greater Gulf War illness severity.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Differential reduction of gray matter volume with age in 35 cortical areas in men (more) and women (less).Journal of neurophysiology · 2023Article
- Evaluation of delayed LNFPIII treatment initiation protocol on improving long-term behavioral and neuroinflammatory pathology in a mouse model of Gulf War Illness.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Article
- BOLD turnover in task-free state: variation among brain areas and effects of age and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DRB1*13.Experimental brain research · 2022Article
- Pyridostigmine bromide elicits progressive and chronic impairments in the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of male rats.Neurobiology of stress · 2022Article
- Review
- At the Root of 3 "Long" Diseases: Persistent Antigens Inflicting Chronic Damage on the Brain and Other Organs in Gulf War Illness, Long-COVID-19, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.Neuroscience insights · 2022Review
- Review
- Gulf War Illness: Mechanisms Underlying Brain Dysfunction and Promising Therapeutic Strategies.Pharmacology & therapeutics · 2021Review
- Lupus Anticoagulant in Gulf War Illness and Autoimmune Disorders: A Common Pathway Toward Autoimmunity.Journal of immunological sciences · 2021Article
- C-Reactive Protein is Associated with Brain White Matter Anomalies in Gulf War Illness.Journal of neurology & neuromedicine · 2020Article
- Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Alleles Prevent Metabolically-Induced Inflammation and Cerebrocortical Thinning in Gulf War Illness.Journal of neurology & neuromedicine · 2020Article
- Gulf War Illness: C-Reactive Protein is Associated with Reduction of the Volume of Hippocampus and Decreased Fractional Anisotropy of the Fornix.Journal of neurology & neuromedicine · 2020Article
- Article
- Anthrax Protective Antigen 63 (PA63): Toxic Effects in Neural Cultures and Role in Gulf War Illness (GWI).Neuroscience insights · 2020Article
- Tri-Allelic Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Protection Against Dementia.Journal of neurology & neuromedicine · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGulf War Illness (GWI) is a multisystem disorder that has affected a substantial number of veterans who served in the 1990-91 Gulf War. The brain is prominently affected, as manifested by the presence of neurological, cognitive and mood symptoms. We reported previously on the protective role of six Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) alleles in GWI (Georgopoulos et al., 2016) and their association with regional brain function (James et al., 2016). More recently, we reported on the presence of subcortical brain atrophy in GWI (Christova et al., 2017) and discussed its possible relation to immune mechanisms. Here we focused on one of the six HLA GWI-protective HLA alleles, DRB1*13:02, which has been found to have a protective role in a broad range of autoimmune diseases (Furukawa et al., 2017), and tested its effects on brain volumes.
methodsSeventy-six Gulf War veterans (55 with GWI and 21 healthy controls) underwent a structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI) scan to measure the volumes of 9 subcortical brain regions to assess differences between participants with (N=11) and without (N=65) HLA class II allele DRB1*13:02.
findingsWe found that DRB1*13:02 spared subcortical brain atrophy in Gulf War veterans; overall subcortical volume was 6.6% higher in carriers of DRB1*13:02 (P=0.007). The strongest effect was observed in the volume of cerebellar gray matter which was 9.6% higher (P=0.007) in carriers of DRB1*13:02 than in non-carriers. By contrast, DRB1*13:01 had no effect.
interpretationThese findings document the protective effect of DRB1*13:02 on brain atrophy in Gulf War veterans and are in keeping with recent results documenting sharing of brain mechanisms between GWI and other immune-related diseases (Georgopoulos et al., 2017). We hypothesize that the protective role of DRB1*13:02 is due to its successful elimination of external antigens to which Gulf War veterans were exposed, antigens that otherwise would persist causing low-grade inflammation and possibly leading to autoimmunity. FUNDING SOURCE: U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH-15-1-0520), Department of Veterans Affairs, American Legion Brain Sciences Chair, and University of Minnesota.
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