Connectivity differences between Gulf War Illness (GWI) phenotypes during a test of attention.

One quarter of veterans returning from the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have developed Gulf War Illness (GWI) with chronic pain, fatigue, cognitive and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Exertion leads to characteristic, delayed onset exacerbations that are not relieved by sleep. We have modeled exertional exhaustion by comparing magnetic resonance images from before and after submaximal exercise. One third of the 27 GWI participants had brain stem atrophy and developed postural tachycardia after exercise (START: Stress Test Activated Reversible Tachycardia). The remainder activated basal ganglia and anterior insulae during a cognitive task (STOPP: Stress Test Originated Phantom Perception). Here, the role of attention in cognitive dysfunction was assessed by seed region correlations during a simple 0-back stimulus matching task ("see a letter, push a button") performed before exercise. Analysis was analogous to resting state, but different from psychophysiological interactions (PPI). The patterns of correlations between nodes in task and default networks were significantly different for START (n = 9), STOPP (n = 18) and control (n = 8) subjects. Edges shared by the 3 groups may represent co-activation caused by the 0-back task. Controls had a task network of right dorsolateral and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, posterior insulae and frontal eye fields (dorsal attention network). START had a large task module centered on the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex with direct links to basal ganglia, anterior insulae, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex nodes, and through dorsal attention network (intraparietal sulci and frontal eye fields) nodes to a default module. STOPP had 2 task submodules of basal ganglia-anterior insulae, and dorsolateral prefrontal executive control regions. Dorsal attention and posterior insulae nodes were embedded in the default module and were distant from the task networks. These three unique connectivity patterns during an attention task support the concept of Gulf War Disease with recognizable, objective patterns of cognitive dysfunction.

Molecular Underpinnings of Fe(III) Oxide Reduction by Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1.

In the absence of O(2) and other electron acceptors, the Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 can use ferric [Fe(III)] (oxy)(hydr)oxide minerals as the terminal electron acceptors for anaerobic respiration. At circumneutral pH and in the absence of strong complexing ligands, Fe(III) oxides are relatively insoluble and thus are external to the bacterial cells. S. oneidensis MR-1 and related strains of metal-reducing Shewanella have evolved machinery (i.e., metal-reducing or Mtr pathway) for transferring electrons from the inner-membrane, through the periplasm and across the outer-membrane to the surface of extracellular Fe(III) oxides. The protein components identified to date for the Mtr pathway include CymA, MtrA, MtrB, MtrC, and OmcA. CymA is an inner-membrane tetraheme c-type cytochrome (c-Cyt) that belongs to the NapC/NrfH family of quinol dehydrogenases. It is proposed that CymA oxidizes the quinol in the inner-membrane and transfers the released electrons to MtrA either directly or indirectly through other periplasmic proteins. A decaheme c-Cyt, MtrA is thought to be embedded in the trans outer-membrane and porin-like protein MtrB. Together, MtrAB deliver the electrons through the outer-membrane to the MtrC and OmcA on the outmost bacterial surface. MtrC and OmcA are the outer-membrane decaheme c-Cyts that are translocated across the outer-membrane by the bacterial type II secretion system. Functioning as terminal reductases, MtrC and OmcA can bind the surface of Fe(III) oxides and transfer electrons directly to these minerals via their solvent-exposed hemes. To increase their reaction rates, MtrC and OmcA can use the flavins secreted by S. oneidensis MR-1 cells as diffusible co-factors for reduction of Fe(III) oxides. Because of their extracellular location and broad redox potentials, MtrC and OmcA can also serve as the terminal reductases for soluble forms of Fe(III). In addition to Fe(III) oxides, Mtr pathway is also involved in reduction of manganese oxides and other metals. Although our understanding of the Mtr pathway is still far from complete, it is the best characterized microbial pathway used for extracellular electron exchange. Characterizations of the Mtr pathway have made significant contributions to the molecular understanding of microbial reduction of Fe(III) oxides.