Nanoelectric device could lead to a diagnostic blood test for ME/CFS

Nanoelectric device could lead to a diagnostic blood test for ME/CFS

Last week, Dr Ron Davis’s team published a pilot study showing remarkable results for their nanoneedle device. Strikingly, there was no overlap between the results for 20 ME/CFS patients and those for 20 healthy controls, something that is almost never seen with this illness. A nanoelectronics-blood-based diagnostic biomarker for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) R Esfandyarpour, A Kashi, M Nemat-Gorgani, J Wilhelmy and RW Davis. 2019 The nanoelectric blood test The research used nanomanufacturing techniques to embed large numbers of…

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Something in the blood

Something in the blood

Remarkaably, four independent groups have now found that a factor in the blood can affect cell metabolism/mitochondria in ME/CFS and transfer the effect to healthy cells.

The first to find the effect were Dr Oystein Fluge and Professor Olav Mella in 2016. They were studying energy production in the cell, a logical thing to do when trying to understand an illness where energy is in such short supply.

A brightening future: the state of ME/CFS research

A brightening future: the state of ME/CFS research

OPINION Although there are no treatments for ME/CFS on the horizon, things are looking up thanks to recent findings and a substantial increase in the amount of high-quality research. The field still needs much more funding. Do you remember the buzz around rituximab? Oncologists Dr Fluge and Professor Mella had noticed something interesting when they treated their cancer patients who also had ME/CFS with the cancer drug rituximab: the patients’ ME/CFS symptoms improved dramatically. In 2011, Fluge and Mella’s small…

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Significant association of DNA variants with self-reported ME/CFS

Significant association of DNA variants with self-reported ME/CFS

Guest blog by Professor Chris Ponting and colleagues. Summary A new analysis using data from UK Biobank indicates that one version of a particular gene increases the risk of ME/CFS in women. The gene codes for a transporter protein in the mitochondrial membrane and plays a critical role in the urea cycle, which is important for removing ammonia from the body. Reduced levels of the transporter protein, which are expected for the gene variant associated with ME/CFS, are likely to…

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The heart of ME/CFS? Lipkin’s Collaborative probes the impact of exertion

The heart of ME/CFS? Lipkin’s Collaborative probes the impact of exertion

The hallmark symptom of ME/CFS is post-exertional malaise (PEM), a prolonged, grim and disproportionate response to exertion. While Dr W. Ian Lipkin’s NIH-funded Collaborative – the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS – is focusing primarily on how problems in patients’ gut microbiomes might drive the disease, his team is also probing deeply what happens when patients exert themselves.​ Lipkin says that the exertion studies are so important that the Collaborative will devote a third of its research resources to them….

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The microbiome hypothesis: Lipkin’s collaborative, part 1

The microbiome hypothesis: Lipkin’s collaborative, part 1

A gut reaction is the problem in ME/CFS – that’s the main idea being pursued by Dr W. Ian Lipkin of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University. He believes that the body’s response to changes in the gut could be what’s driving ME/CFS for at least some patients. Lipkin’s collaborative group, the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS, will test this theory as part of a $9.6 million, five-year research programme, which Lipkin was good enough to discuss…

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