Disentangling the effects of PTSD from Gulf War Illness in male veterans via a systems-wide analysis of immune cell, cytokine, and symptom measures.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateParticipants were recruited through several studies carried out at multiple institutions. Participants recruited via the MVAMC signed an informed consent approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the MVAMC (protocol numbers 4987.69 and 4987.75). Participants recruited via Boston University School of Public Health signed an informed consent approved by Boston University Medical Campus IRB. Ethics review and approval for data analysis was obtained by the IRB of Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and approved by the United States Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC) Human Research Protection Office (HRPO). Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding Funding for this research came from the US Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) awards (http://cdmrp.army.mil/) W81XWH-16-1-0632 (Craddock PI), W81XWH-16-1-0552 (Craddock PI), W81XWH-18-1-0549 (Sullivan PI), W81XWH-13-2-0072 (Sullivan PI), and W81XWH-09-2-0071 (Klimas PI) and a Veterans Affairs Merit Award (4987.69) to Dr. Nancy Klimas. The Funders had no role in the design of the study, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or in the writing of the manuscript. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Funders."