Exposure to Low Doses of Nerve Agents Suppresses Immune Functions in Mice

TL;DRAbstract

Several studies have indicated that exposure to low‐levels of nerve agents and smoke from oil well fires are possible causes for nonspecific symptoms collectively labeled as Gulf War Illness (GWI). It has been suggested that exposure to low doses of nerve agents causes subtle neuroimmune abnormalities that could manifest in GWI symptoms. Several studies examining immunotoxicity in terms of alterations in spleen/thymus organ weight, total cellularity, and lymphoproliferation of spleen cells in rodents, reached conflicting conclusions. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the effects of exposures to low levels of nerve agents on immune functions of mice in response to anthrax protective antigen (PA). Balb/c mice were exposed to a single or repeated (10 exposures over two weeks) low doses of sarin or VX (0.4 × LD 50 ), and immunized with PA at weeks 0 and 4. Analysis of sera for the production of anti‐PA IgG revealed that both single and multiple exposures to low doses of nerve agents s

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