scholarly journals Activation of Transposable Elements in Immune Cells of Fibromyalgia Patients

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Ovejero ◽  
Océane Sadones ◽  
Teresa Sánchez-Fito ◽  
Eloy Almenar-Pérez ◽  
José Andrés Espejo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Transposable Elements ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Chronic Fatigue ◽  
Sequencing Technology ◽  
Fatigue Syndrome ◽  
Future Work ◽  
First Time ◽  
Herv Expression ◽  
Healthy Participants

The development of nucleic acid sequencing technology and the unprecedented availability of metadata has evidenced that 45% of human genome constituted by transposable elements (TEs) is not only transcriptionally active but also physiologically needed. Aberrant regulation of TEs, and of human retroviral endogenous sequences (HERVs) in particular, associates with several neurologic and autoimmune diseases, including the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) frequently comorbid with fibromyalgia (FM). However, no study has yet addressed whether abnormal expression of these sequences correlates with FM. The work presented here shows, for the first time, that in fact HERVs of the H, K and W types are overexpressed in the cells of the immune system of FM patients with or without comorbid ME/CFS. The patients with increased HERV expression (N=14) presented increased levels of interferon (INF-β and INF-γ) but unchanged levels of TNF-α. In support of our proposal that TE activation is a contributor to FM, we find that the tRNA pools are decreased in comparison to matched healthy participants (N=14). The findings reported here could explain the flu-like symptoms FM patients present with in the absence of concomitant infections. Future work towards identifying specific genomic loci differentially affected in FM and ME/CFS is granted.

scholarly journals Activation of Transposable Elements in Immune Cells of Fibromyalgia Patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Ovejero ◽  
Océane Sadones ◽  
Teresa Sánchez-Fito ◽  
Eloy Almenar-Pérez ◽  
José Andrés Espejo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Transposable Elements ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Chronic Fatigue ◽  
Sequencing Technology ◽  
Fatigue Syndrome ◽  
Tnf Α ◽  
Future Work ◽  
First Time ◽  
Herv Expression

Advancements in nucleic acid sequencing technology combined with an unprecedented availability of metadata have revealed that 45% of the human genome constituted by transposable elements (TEs) is not only transcriptionally active but also physiologically necessary. Dysregulation of TEs, including human retroviral endogenous sequences (HERVs) has been shown to associate with several neurologic and autoimmune diseases, including Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). However, no study has yet addressed whether abnormal expression of these sequences correlates with fibromyalgia (FM), a disease frequently comorbid with ME/CFS. The work presented here shows, for the first time, that, in fact, HERVs of the H, K and W types are overexpressed in immune cells of FM patients with or without comorbid ME/CFS. Patients with increased HERV expression (N = 14) presented increased levels of interferon (INF-β and INF-γ) but unchanged levels of TNF-α. The findings reported in this study could explain the flu-like symptoms FM patients present with in clinical practice, in the absence of concomitant infections. Future work aimed at identifying specific genomic loci differentially affected in FM and/or ME/CFS is warranted.

The Immune System in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-263
Author(s):  
A.S. Bradley ◽  
B. Ford ◽  
A.S. Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ◽  
Chronic Fatigue ◽  
Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome, the immune system and viral infection

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Bansal ◽  
A.S. Bradley ◽  
K.N. Bishop ◽  
S. Kiani-Alikhan ◽  
B. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ◽  
Viral Infection ◽  
Chronic Fatigue ◽  
Fatigue Syndrome

scholarly journals Theoretical Accounts of Gulf War Syndrome: From Environmental Toxins to Psychoneuroimmunology and Neurodegeneration

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 133-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eamonn Ferguson ◽  
Helen J. Cassaday
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Inflammatory Cytokines ◽  
Interleukin 1 ◽  
Chronic Fatigue ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
T Helper 1 ◽  
Gulf War Syndrome ◽  
Fatigue Syndrome ◽  
Pro Inflammatory Cytokines ◽  
Specific Illness

Non-specific illness includes a wide variety of symptoms: behavioural (e.g., reduced food and water intake), cognitive (e.g., memory and concentration problems) and physiological (e.g., fever). This paper reviews evidence suggesting that such symptoms can be explained more parsimoniously as a single symptom cluster than as a set of separate illnesses such as Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). This superordinate syndrome could have its biological basis in the activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines (in particular interleukin-1: IL-1), that give rise to what has become known as the ‘sickness response’. It is further argued that the persistence of non-specific illness in chronic conditions like GWS may be (in part) attributable to a bio-associative mechanism (Ferguson and Cassaday, 1999). In the case of GWS, physiological challenges could have produced a non-specific sickness response that became associated with smells (e.g., petrol), coincidentally experienced in the Persian Gulf. On returning to the home environment, these same smells would act as associative triggers for the maintenance of (conditioned) sickness responses. Such associative mechanisms could be mediated through the hypothalamus and limbic system via vagal nerve innervation and would provide an explanation for the persistence of a set of symptoms (e.g., fever) that should normally be short lived and self-limiting. We also present evidence that the pattern of symptoms produced by the pro-inflammatory cytokines reflects a shift in immune system functioning towards a (T-helper-1) Th1 profile. This position contrasts with other immunological accounts of GWS that suggest that the immune system demonstrates a shift to a Th2 (allergy) profile. Evidence pertaining to these two contrasting positions is reviewed.

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