American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Special Issue

Extracellular Vesicular (EV) Content as Biomarkers and Therapies of Combat-related Morbidities

  • Submission Deadline: Oct. 15, 2020
  • Status: Submission Closed
  • Lead Guest Editor: Natasha Sosanya
About This Special Issue
There is a need for non-invasive biomarkers and novel therapies for combat persistent injuries, including injury-induced inflammation and pain as well as the combat stress reaction (CSR). Service Members are exposed to adversarial conditions that can result in sustained combat injuries. Therefore, a major research goal is to understand the mechanisms that underlie these injuries to identify and test novel therapeutics. Inflammation and pain is experienced as a result of all combat-related injuries and can be exacerbated by physical and psychological stress. The combat stress reaction (CSR), experienced as a direct result of battlefield stress exposure, exhibits as a collection of autonomic nervous system symptoms, such as exhaustion, that function to limit the Service Member’s performance. In extreme hostile conditions, the ratio can be as high as 1:1 for CSR to battle casualties. Currently, knowledge pertaining to biomarkers for inflammation, CSR, pain development, and other combat-related injuries is severely lacking. In this special issue, we explore extracellular vesicular (EV) content as biomarkers and therapies of combat-related morbidities. This research is also quite applicable to civilian-sustained injuries.
EV contained content are attractive biomarker candidates due to their conservation across species, stability in liquid biopsies, and variation that corresponds to a pathologic state. miRNA, mRNA, and protein can be sorted into EVs within the cell and released from a site of injury followed by endocytosis by adjacent or distant target cells. Upon uptake, the EV content can function to affect various signaling pathways that may contribute to inflammation, pain, CSR, or other combat-related morbidities. Previously, we discovered several potential biomarkers of nerve injury and for the development of neuropathic pain. The focus of this previous study was to determine the plasma derived EV miRNA content in a neuropathic pain model (Sosanya et al., 2019, J Pain). In this proposed special issue, we explore research in the use of EV content as biomarkers and therapies for inflammation, pain, CSR, and other combat-related morbidities.
Aims and Scope:
  1. Combat-related injuries
  2. Extracellular vesicles
  3. Pain
  4. Stress
  5. Inflammation
  6. EV based therapies
Lead Guest Editor
  • Natasha Sosanya

    Battlefield Pain Management, Burn and Soft Tissue Research, US Army Institute of Surgical Research, JBSA Ft. Sam Houston, United States

Guest Editors
  • John Clifford

    Battlefield Pain Management, Burn and Soft Tissue Research, JBSA Ft. Sam Houston, United States

  • Shanmugasundaram Natesan

    Burn and Soft Tissue Research, US Army Institute of Surgical Research, JBSA Ft. Sam Houston, United States

  • Farr Niere

    Physiology and Pharmacology Department, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston, United States

  • Arezoo Mohammadipoor

    Expeditionary Critical Care Research Department, US Army Institute of Surgical Research, JBSA Ft. Sam Houston, United States

  • Sanjeev Namjoshi

    Cancer Biology Department, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston, United States

  • Nicholas Clay

    Burn and Soft Tissue Research, US Army Institute of Surgical Research, JBSA Ft. Sam Houston, United States

  • Anujaianthi Ramakrishnan

    Research Scientist, Beckman Institute for Advance Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Urbana, United States