In May (2019), 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.
Popular international science magazine New Scientist has published yet another article covering research into ME/CFS.
This time they looked at findings which may lead to biomarkers for the illness by measuring levels of immune systems substances called cytokines which can affect levels of inflammation in the body. Read more…
The New Scientists reports on preliminary work by Norwegian researchers led by Øystein Fluge of Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen and the possible link with the therapeutic effect of cancer drug Rituximab in other studies.
Full article at http://bit.ly/29ISg0I
Over the years, a number of reports in the scientific literature have pointed to the presence of abnormalities of heart (cardiac) function in ME/CFS. The latest comes from Prof Julia Newton and colleagues at Newcastle University and is published in the journal “Open Heart”.
In essence, the work confirms the group’s previous findings – but this time in a larger group of new patients and controls – and showed that the volumes of blood pumped by the heart per beat were lower than in healthy people. Also, in two-thirds of patients, the volume of red blood cells was below the lower limits expected in the normal population. Importantly, the length of illness was not related to any cardiac measurements, suggesting that ‘deconditioning’ (which would be greater the longer a person was ill) was unlikely to be the cause of these abnormalities, as is sometimes claimed.
The next steps are to explore whether these abnormalities are caused by ME/CFS or its consequences or whether, for instance, a (pre-existing) reduced cardiac volume may make people more vulnerable to the development of the illness. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council and ME Research UK, and you can read more at the link above.
Researchers from Griffith University’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED) — part of the new Menzies Health Institute Queensland — have uncovered significant factors contributing to the pathology of this illness chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).
The results reveal genetic changes in important receptors associated with immunological and cellular function and contribute to the development of this complex illness.
Read more:
Griffith University. “New light shed on cause of chronic fatigue syndrome.” ScienceDaily, 11 May 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150511172755.htm.
Published paper: 10.4137/III.S25147