Abou-Donia, Mohamed B, Lapadula, Elizabeth S, Krengel, Maxine H et al. · Brain sciences · 2020 · DOI
Researchers tested blood samples from Gulf War veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI) and compared them to healthy veterans and people with ME/CFS or irritable bowel syndrome. They found that GWI veterans had higher levels of autoantibodies—proteins the immune system makes that mistakenly attack the brain and nervous system—compared to all three control groups. This suggests that a blood test measuring these autoantibodies could potentially help doctors diagnose Gulf War Illness objectively.
For 30 years, GWI and ME/CFS have lacked objective diagnostic biomarkers, forcing clinicians to rely on symptom-based diagnosis. This study identifies a potential blood test that could distinguish GWI from similar conditions including ME/CFS, offering hope for earlier diagnosis and more targeted treatment. The inclusion of ME/CFS as a control group also provides comparative data suggesting these conditions have distinct immune/neurobiological signatures.
This study does not prove that autoantibodies cause GWI symptoms or neurological damage—only that they are associated with the condition. It cannot establish whether these autoantibodies are a primary driver of illness, a secondary consequence, or a biomarker of a deeper underlying process. Additionally, the cross-sectional design means we cannot determine whether autoantibody levels change over time or predict clinical outcomes.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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Primary citation
Abou-Donia, Mohamed B, Lapadula, Elizabeth S, Krengel, Maxine H, Quinn, Emily, LeClair, Jessica, Massaro, Joseph, et al. (2020). Using Plasma Autoantibodies of Central Nervous System Proteins to Distinguish Veterans with Gulf War Illness from Healthy and Symptomatic Controls.. Brain sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10090610
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-abou-donia-2020-using-plasma,
author = {Abou-Donia, Mohamed B and Lapadula, Elizabeth S and Krengel, Maxine H and Quinn, Emily and LeClair, Jessica and Massaro, Joseph and Conboy, Lisa A and Kokkotou, Efi and Abreu, Maria and Klimas, Nancy G and Nguyen, Daniel D and Sullivan, Kimberly},
title = {Using Plasma Autoantibodies of Central Nervous System Proteins to Distinguish Veterans with Gulf War Illness from Healthy and Symptomatic Controls.},
journal = {Brain sciences},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3390/brainsci10090610},
note = {PubMed: 32899468},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/abou-donia-2020-using-plasma},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/abou-donia-2020-using-plasma
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