Survey of Anti-Pathogen Antibody Levels in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Infectious pathogens are implicated in the etiology of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) because of the occurrence of outbreaks of the disease. While a number of different infectious agents have been associated with the onset of ME/CFS, the identity of a specific organism has been difficult to determine in individual cases. The aim of our study is to survey ME/CFS subjects for evidence of an infectious trigger and/or evidence of immune dysregulation via serological testing of plasma samples for antibodies to 122 different pathogen antigens. Immune profiles were compared to age-, sex-, and BMI-matched controls to provide a basis for comparison. Antibody levels to individual antigens surveyed in this study do not implicate any one of the pathogens in ME/CFS, nor do they rule out common pathogens that frequently infect the US population. However, our results revealed sex-based differences in steady-state humoral immunity, both within the ME/CFS cohort and when compared to trends seen in the healthy control cohort.

publication date

  • June 13, 2022

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC9228258

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85079491656

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1172/JCI132185

PubMed ID

  • 35736801

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 10

issue

  • 2