In Memory: Gulf War Illness Researcher Dr Jerry Buccafussco

This past week the gulf war veterans lost a researcher that had one of the earliest studies that brought attention to gulf war illness (see abstract attached). It is sad to lose such a talented researcher and sadder still because he obviously would have been one of the researchers with the background and training to help find treatment options for gulf war veterans sufferring from gulf war illness.  Dr Jerry Buccafusco will be missed.  We salute him for his service to medical science and to veterans.

Full obit and scientific abstract with links to the originals included appear below.

DR. JERRY JOSEPH BUCCAFUSCO

Dr. Jerry Joseph Buccafusco passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family on March 6, 2010. He was a beloved husband, father, and friend and an internationally renowned researcher at the Medical College of Georgia and the Veterans Affairs Administration Hospital.

‘Dr. B.,’ as he was known to many, was born on August 20th, 1949 in Jersey City, NJ to Dominick and Rose Buccafusco. He was educated in Jersey City public schools, and his scientific career began with a chemistry set in his father’s basement. He attended St. Peter’s College, graduating with a degree in Chemistry in 1971. He then received a Master’s degree from Canisius College and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1978.

During graduate school, he married Regina Neilan, a longtime friend, because, according to her, his car broke down and he needed transportation. In 1979, Jerry and Regina moved to Martinez, GA when he was offered a professorship in the Pharmacology department at MCG.

Over the next thirty years, Dr. B. was appointed director of the Neuropharmacology Laboratory at the VA, and he was the founder and director of both the Alzheimer’s Research Center and the Animal Behavior Center at MCG. His research, which comprises more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and four edited books, has made significant contributions to a variety of fields, including hypertension, drug abuse, Gulf War Syndrome, and Alzheimer’s Disease.

In addition, he served as editor of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and various other scientific journals, as well as the chair of a National Institutes of Health study section on drug development research. For this work, Dr. B. received numerous national and international awards, most recently the Distinguished Alumnus Award from UMDNJ and the ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics.

Last year he was appointed Regents’ Professor of the University of Georgia System, and only days before his passing, he was awarded a multi-year, multimillion dollar research grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. B.’s influence will live on in the work of numerous graduate students and post-doctoral fellows that he mentored who now serve in prestigious positions throughout the world. No doubt his proudest legacy, however, is his relationship with his family. Dr. B’s wife, Regina, has been a member of the Columbia County Board of Education since 1998 and its Chairman since 2008. Their eldest son, Chris, was born in 1979 and is now a law professor in Chicago. Marty, born in 1982, is a filmmaker in New York City. He completed his first feature film last year. Their honorary ‘third son,’ Seth Otey, lives in Las Vegas.

Dr. B. coached many of their youth sports tams, and he and Regina twice coached Marty’s Odyssey of the Mind teams to the World Finals. In 1994, the Buccafuscos were named the Family of the Year by the Augusta Junior Women’s Club. Jerry and Regina always maintained an open door policy for the neighborhood children, with ‘neighborhood’ used very broadly. In addition to filling in for touch football games, Dr. B. was a trusted confidant, mentor, and inspiration to many young people. He was always happy to take time to show off his comic book collection or to introduce friends to the wonders of Dr. Who. In addition to his wife and children, Dr. B. is survived by his mother Rose Buccafusco, two brothers John & Dominick Buccafusco, a sister Roseanne Farrell, and many sister-in-laws, a brother-in-law and nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his father Dominick Buccafusco.

A Catholic Mass will be given on Tuesday, at 11:00 AM at St. Mary’s On the Hill with the Rev. Michael Kavanaugh officiating. He will be laid to rest in his velvet dinner jacket. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations for a scholarship for MCG graduate students to honor Dr. Buccafusco. Those donations may be made to the Georgia Health Sciences Foundation, Alumni Center FI1030, 1120 15th Street, Augusta, Georgia, 30912. Please sign the guestbook and send condolences at www.plattsfuneralhome.com. Platt’s Funeral Home 337 N. Belair Road Evans, Ga. 30809 706-860-6166
Published in The Jersey Journal on March 9, 2010
http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/jerseyjournal/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=140516968

Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1997 Jan;129(2):183-91.

Chronic, low-level exposure to diisopropylfluorophosphate causes protracted impairment of spatial navigation learning.
Prendergast MA, Terry AV Jr, Buccafusco JJ.

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Alzheimer’s Research Center, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-2300, USA.

Chronic, low-level exposure to cholinesterase inhibitor organophosphate (OP) insecticides or chemical warfare agents produces abnormalities in CNS acetylcholine (ACh) function, and in humans, may be associated with impaired cognitive function as well after withdrawal from such exposure.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the severity of impairment in spatial learning of rats following protracted withdrawal from chronic, low-level exposure to the OP agent diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP).

Assessment of spatial learning began either 3 or 17 days after completion of a 14-day DFP treatment regimen (50, 250, or 500 micrograms/kg).

During the 14-day treatment regimen, spontaneous activity and olfactory behaviors were suppressed, effects which subsided with repeated exposure to the 250 micrograms/kg dose regimen.

In contrast, both behaviors were stimulated by exposure to the 50 micrograms/kg dose regimen, as was body weight gain. Performance of the spatial test of working memory was impaired for up to 21 days after withdrawal from treatment with a 250 micrograms/kg dose of DFP.

AChE activity in the frontal cortex and hippocampus was suppressed to 42.58% and 50.35% of control levels, respectively, 3 days after completion of the DFP (250 micrograms/kg) treatment regimen.

By 7 days after withdrawal from treatment, AChE activity in the cortex and hippocampus had recovered to 81.87% and 64.61% of control levels, respectively. These levels represent increases in activity of 39.29% and 14.26% in these regions, as compared to AChE activity in 3 days after DFP withdrawal. By 21 days after withdrawal from treatment, AChE in both brain regions had recovered to levels similar to those of controls.

Chronic, low-level OP exposure, therefore, produces protracted impairment of working memory after drug withdrawal that is not associated with continued suppression of AChE activity. This impairment may, however, be associated with a decreased rate of AChE recovery in the hippocampus, relative to the cortex. This decreased rate of enzyme recovery may contribute to hippocampal toxicity underlying protracted impairment of working memory.

PMID: 9040125
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9040125