scholarly journals Autoantibodies to Vasoregulative G-Protein-Coupled Receptors Correlate with Symptom Severity, Autonomic Dysfunction and Disability in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 3675
Author(s):  
Helma Freitag ◽  
Marvin Szklarski ◽  
Sebastian Lorenz ◽  
Franziska Sotzny ◽  
Sandra Bauer ◽  
...  

Background: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is an acquired complex disease with patients suffering from the cardinal symptoms of fatigue, post-exertional malaise (PEM), cognitive impairment, pain and autonomous dysfunction. ME/CFS is triggered by an infection in the majority of patients. Initial evidence for a potential role of natural regulatory autoantibodies (AAB) to beta-adrenergic (AdR) and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (M-AChR) in ME/CFS patients comes from a few studies. Methods: Here, we analyzed the correlations of symptom severity with levels of AAB to vasoregulative AdR, AChR and Endothelin-1 type A and B (ETA/B) and Angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor in a Berlin cohort of ME/CFS patients (n = 116) by ELISA. The severity of disease, symptoms and autonomic dysfunction were assessed by questionnaires. Results: We found levels of most AABs significantly correlated with key symptoms of fatigue and muscle pain in patients with infection-triggered onset. The severity of cognitive impairment correlated with AT1-R- and ETA-R-AAB and severity of gastrointestinal symptoms with alpha1/2-AdR-AAB. In contrast, the patients with non-infection-triggered ME/CFS showed fewer and other correlations. Conclusion: Correlations of specific AAB against G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) with symptoms provide evidence for a role of these AAB or respective receptor pathways in disease pathomechanism.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 4786
Author(s):  
Undine-Sophie Deumer ◽  
Angelica Varesi ◽  
Valentina Floris ◽  
Gabriele Savioli ◽  
Elisa Mantovani ◽  
...  

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic systemic disease that manifests via various symptoms such as chronic fatigue, post-exertional malaise, and cognitive impairment described as “brain fog”. These symptoms often prevent patients from keeping up their pre-disease onset lifestyle, as extended periods of physical or mental activity become almost impossible. However, the disease presents heterogeneously with varying severity across patients. Therefore, consensus criteria have been designed to provide a diagnosis based on symptoms. To date, no biomarker-based tests or diagnoses are available, since the molecular changes observed also largely differ from patient to patient. In this review, we discuss the infectious, genetic, and hormonal components that may be involved in CFS pathogenesis, we scrutinize the role of gut microbiota in disease progression, we highlight the potential of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) for the development of diagnostic tools and briefly mention the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 infection causing CFS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Hohberger ◽  
Thomas Harrer ◽  
Christian Mardin ◽  
Friedrich Kruse ◽  
Jakob Hoffmanns ◽  
...  

Clinical features of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Acute infection management is a substantial healthcare issue, and the development of long-Covid syndrome (LCS) is extremely challenging for patients and physicians. It is associated with a variety of characteristics as impaired capillary microcirculation, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), proinflammatory cytokines, and functional autoantibodies targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR-AAbs). Here, we present a case report of successful healing of LCS with BC 007 (Berlin Cures, Berlin, Germany), a DNA aptamer drug with a high affinity to GPCR-AAbs that neutralizes these AAbs. A patient with a documented history of glaucoma, recovered from mild COVID-19, but still suffered from CFS, loss of taste, and impaired capillary microcirculation in the macula and peripapillary region. He was positively tested for various targeting GPCR-AAbs. Within 48 h after a single BC 007 treatment, GPCR-AAbs were functionally inactivated and remained inactive during the observation period of 4 weeks. This observation was accompanied by constant improvement of the fatigue symptoms of the patient, taste, and retinal capillary microcirculation. Therefore, the removal of GPCR-AAb might ameliorate the characteristics of the LCD, such as capillary impairment, loss of taste, and CFS.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3746
Author(s):  
Lluis Capdevila ◽  
Jesús Castro-Marrero ◽  
José Alegre ◽  
Juan Ramos-Castro ◽  
Rosa M Escorihuela

In a previous study using mobile-health technology (mHealth), we reported a robust association between chronic fatigue symptoms and heart rate variability (HRV) in female patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This study explores HRV analysis as an objective, non-invasive and easy-to-apply marker of ME/CFS using mHealth technology, and evaluates differential gender effects on HRV and ME/CFS core symptoms. In our methodology, participants included 77 ME/CFS patients (32 men and 45 women) and 44 age-matched healthy controls (19 men and 25 women), all self-reporting subjective scores for fatigue, sleep quality, anxiety, and depression, and neurovegetative symptoms of autonomic dysfunction. The inter-beat cardiac intervals are continuously monitored/recorded over three 5-min periods, and HRV is analyzed using a custom-made application (iOS) on a mobile device connected via Bluetooth to a wearable cardiac chest band. Male ME/CFS patients show increased scores compared with control men in all symptoms and scores of fatigue, and autonomic dysfunction, as with women in the first study. No differences in any HRV parameter appear between male ME/CFS patients and controls, in contrast to our findings in women. However, we have found negative correlations of ME/CFS symptomatology with cardiac variability (SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, LF) in men. We have also found a significant relationship between fatigue symptomatology and HRV parameters in ME/CFS patients, but not in healthy control men. Gender effects appear in HF, LF/HF, and HFnu HRV parameters. A MANOVA analysis shows differential gender effects depending on the experimental condition in autonomic dysfunction symptoms and HF and HFnu HRV parameters. A decreased HRV pattern in ME/CFS women compared to ME/CFS men may reflect a sex-related cardiac autonomic dysfunction in ME/CFS illness that could be used as a predictive marker of disease progression. In conclusion, we show that HRV analysis using mHealth technology is an objective, non-invasive tool that can be useful for clinical prediction of fatigue severity, especially in women with ME/CFS.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Maria Eugenia Ariza

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) or Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID) is a chronic multisystem illness of unconfirmed etiology. There are currently no biomarkers and/or signatures available to assist in the diagnosis of the syndrome and while numerous mechanisms have been hypothesized to explain the pathology of ME/CFS, the triggers and/or drivers remain unknown. Initial studies suggested a potential role of the human herpesviruses especially Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the disease process but inconsistent and conflicting data led to the erroneous suggestion that these viruses had no role in the syndrome. New studies using more advanced approaches have now demonstrated that specific proteins encoded by EBV could contribute to the immune and neurological abnormalities exhibited by a subgroup of patients with ME/CFS. Elucidating the role of these herpesvirus proteins in ME/CFS may lead to the identification of specific biomarkers and the development of novel therapeutics.


Author(s):  
Stefan Kempke ◽  
Boudewijn Van Houdenhove ◽  
Stephan Claes ◽  
Patrick Luyten

Author(s):  
Gayathri Viswanathan ◽  
Argen Mamazhakypov ◽  
Ralph T. Schermuly ◽  
Sudarshan Rajagopal

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
V. V. Tsaryk ◽  
A. K. Novoskoltsev

At the issue represented the etiopathogenesis of the chronic fatigue syndrome of (CFS) with immune dysfunction. Many doctors consider this problem only from the point of view of non-psychological disorders requiring only psycho-correction and non-drug treatment. However, syndromocomplex of CFS includes not only neuropsychiatric disorders, but also fibromyalgia syndrome, unexplained genesis, lymphadenopathy, non-specific polyarthralgias. It is also controversial about the feasibility of treating type 6 herpesviruses and type 7 viruses. Some authors consider the need for antiviral therapy only when reactivating the herpesvirus infection, in the transplantation of organs and tissues. However, for frequent HHV-7 and HHV-6 viremia remains resistant to ganciclovir, unlike CMV and EBV, which is successfully controlled by viremia.


BMJ ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 308 (6939) ◽  
pp. 1297-1301 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Blatch ◽  
T Blatt ◽  
A Wilson ◽  
I Hickie ◽  
A Lloyd ◽  
...  

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