No abstract

Approximately 33% of U.S. soldiers from the first Gulf War suffer from a multi-system disorder known as the Gulf War Illness (GWI). GW veterans suffer from a cluster of symptoms that prominently include fatigue and can include mood-related symptoms. Compared to traditional antidepressants, ketamine (KET) produces a fast-onset and long-lasting antidepressant response, but assessments of KET for GWI-related depression are lacking. The etiology of GWI is multi-factorial and exposure to organophosphates (OP) during deployment is one of the factors underlying GWI development. Here, male Sprague-Dawley rats were repeatedly exposed to an OP DFP and three months later these rats, when assessed on a battery of rodent behavioral assays, displayed signs consistent with aspects of GWI characteristics. When treated with a sub-anesthetic dose of KET (3, 5, or 10 mg/kg, i.p.), DFP-treated rats exhibited a significant improvement in immobility time, open-arm exploration, and sucrose consumption as early as 1 h and much of these effects persisted at 24-h post-KET injection. KET’s stereoisomers, R-KET and S-KET, also exhibited such effects in DFP rats, with R-KET being the more potent isomer. Our studies provide a starting point for further assessment of KET for GWI depression.

No abstract

<p>We have recorded consistent (but low) numbers and a diverse range of diatom taxa (siliceous algae) over a 400-year period in the RECAP ice core, drilled from the Renland ice cap on the east coast of Greenland. This is an exciting initial step in attempting a diatom-based environmental reconstruction for an Arctic ice core for the first time, since Greenland’s inland ice cores (e.g. NGRIP, GRIP) do not appear to contain diatoms in enough numbers. Our novel study investigated the period 1528 - 1940 AD (encompassing the Little Ice Age (LIA)) and we developed a method for extracting diatom taxa from the ice-core meltwater samples for identification. This was done by microscopy using standard taxonomic techniques. In summary, the RECAP LIA assemblage comprises 93 species, 36 genera and 11 families where <em>Thalassiosira/Coscinodiscus</em>, <em>Aulocoseira,</em> <em>Pinnularia, Nitzschia, Luticola, Diadesmis, Staurosira, Achnanthidium, Psammothidium spp</em> are the dominant genera. In this interval we found that Renland received air blown diatoms from both planktonic/benthic freshwater (80%) and planktonic marine (20%) sources. The freshwater species included aerophilic species (from damp environments), key indicators of exposed, environments and found widely in the Arctic. We observe that both total diatom numbers and species composition changes rapidly over time (i.e. decadal timescales), similar to other ice-core proxies, and with higher total numbers/yr between about 1780 and 1850 AD. Further analysis is required to establish a link to specific environmental variables, which could include aridity, wind strength or sea ice cover. We hypothesise that similar lower altitude, coastal ice cores from Greenland and Canada could be useful diatom repositories in the Arctic region.</p>