Following active service during the 1990/1991 Gulf Conflict, a number of UK and US veterans presented with a diverse range of symptoms, collectively known as Gulf Veterans Illnesses (GVI). The administration of
vaccines and/or the pretreatment against possible
nerve agent poisoning,
pyridostigmine bromide (PB), given to Armed Forces personnel during the Gulf Conflict has been implicated as a possible factor in the aetiology of these illnesses. The possibility that adverse health effects may result from the administration of these
vaccines (anthrax,
pertussis,
plague,
yellow fever,
polio,
typhoid,
tetanus,
hepatitis B,
meningococcal meningitis and
cholera) and/or PB, have been investigated over an eighteen month period, in a non-human primate model, the common marmoset. This study reports immunological indices, including leukocyte phenotypes, intracellular
cytokines IFN-gamma and
IL-4 and antibody responses against
vaccine antigens. Using human isotyping
reagents previously shown to cross react with marmoset
immunoglobulins (ibid) it was shown that marmosets responded strongly against
anthrax PA and
pertussis and weakly against killed whole cell
plague,
cholera and
typhoid. At the end of the study the immune response to a previously unseen T-cell dependent
antigen,
keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH), was examined in order to determine whether immune function had been compromised by the compounds administered. Statistically equivalent, robust antibody responses were measured against KLH in all treatment groups indicating that the immune system had not been compromised by any of the treatments. In addition, urinary
cortisol was measured at key points throughout the study as an index of physiological stress which may have been induced by the treatments. There were no effects of treatment on urinary
cortisol secretion. With respect to the other immunological indices measured, there were no statistical differences between the treatment groups during the period of the study.