"ME/CFS patients have impaired natural killer (NK) cell activity. NK lymphocytes are a critical first defense against viruses and cancer. ME/CFS patients have difficulties controlling viral infections and many develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma."
"In our study, we observed that the two main energy-generating mitochondrial pathways, oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis (bioenergetics parameters), are deregulated in ME/CFS NK cells and in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)."
"These mitochondrial features can affect NK cell function and contribute to the severity of disease. To date, this is the first metabolism assessment of NK cells in ME/CFS and as potential new diagnostic tool for the disease."
🧵 1/8 Continuing her impressive work with AI, @JennyWi04810918 asked ChatGPT to devise a treatment plan based on "all the confirmed published research that has been replicated in M.E., starting from 1955 to the present day." Here's what it came up with...
🧵1/11 Jenny Wilson (@JennyWi04810918) is obtaining some fascinating results using AI to interpret test results of anonymous, severely ill #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis patients who have been dismissed by their GP. In this case, Jenny didn't mention ME.
🧵 A selection of #MECFS and #LongCovid research papers published in 2024:
1/ 'Physical exertion worsens symptoms in patients with post-COVID condition : Post-exertional malaise in patients with post-COVID condition' scienceopen.com/hosted-documen…
3/ 'Dysregulation of extracellular vesicle protein cargo in female myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome cases and sedentary controls in response to maximal exercise' isevjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/je…
The medical community is failing #pwME badly right now. From GPs who deny patients medication for treatable symptoms to consultants who deny appropriate feeding arrangements for severely ill patients in hospital. 1/4 #MECFS #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis
Change is being blocked by bad faith actors who occupy positions of strategic importance in the medical hierarchy. The new NICE guidelines only seem to have reinforced their determination to retain the fallacious biopsychosocial model of #MECFS in the healthcare system. 2/4
This is undoubtedly a low point for the #MECFS patient community. Even somewhat better media coverage hasn't budged the dial. Ideally we would take visible direct action, but since that isn't possible, we must continue to speak out against the prejudice and maltreatment. 3/4
The long-awaited NIH Intramural Study of ME/CFS, led by Avindra Nath, has finally been published in full.
🧵 "Considering all the data together, Post-infectious ME/CFS (PI-ME/CFS) appears to be a centrally mediated disorder." 1/ nature.com/articles/s4146…
"We posit this hypothetical mechanism of how an infection can create a cascade of physiological alterations that lead to the PI-ME/CFS phenotype. Exposure to an infection leads to concomitant immune dysfunction and changes in microbial composition." 2/
"These immune and microbial alterations impact the central nervous system, leading to decreased concentrations of metabolites, including glutamate, tryptophan, spermidine, citrate, and the metabolites of dopamine (DOPAC) and norepinephrine (DHPG)." 3/
Nath's back, finding a chronically activated immune response causing neuronal injury in the brains of #pwLC. It explains why it's taken him forever to publish his big #MECFS study, but the good/bad news is he thinks the same thing's happening in #pwME. 1/4 healthrising.org/blog/2022/07/1…
This looks very similar to what Komaroff et al suggested was happening in #MECFS 30 years ago: "patients may have been experiencing a chronic, immunologically mediated inflammatory process of the central nervous system." 2/4 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1309285/
Nath also found the same widespread punctate hyperintensities in the microvasculature of brains which first started showing up in MRI scans of #pwME in the 80s (see J. Goldstein) and were routinely dismissed by neurologists as insignificant. 3/4 healthrising.org/blog/2021/01/2…