Announcing OMF's First ME/CFS Clinical Trial!

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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia Leading Research. Delivering Hope.Open Medicine Foundation® Canada

Driving research of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS),
Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia and Long COVID.

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Developing Rapid System for Outlier Analysis in ME/CFS

PROTOCOL AIM
Establish an analytical workflow for outlier analysis in ME/CFS to identify disease or symptom exacerbators that may not be considered in the individual with ME/CFS (including gene mutations, elevated toxins) and then develop a software program to rapidly identify these potential anomalies.
LEAD INVESTIGATORS
  • Christopher Armstrong, PhD
  • Paul Gooley, PhD
  • Neil McGregor, PhD
  • David Ascher, PhD
PROTOCOL VALUE

This software would rapidly identify disease or symptom exacerbators that may be due to genetic mutation of environmental stressors in individuals with ME/CFS. This will provide a better understanding of the symptom expression in ME/CFS and help identify secondary issues or chronic triggers that are exacerbating/maintaining the disease.

Identifying these issues or stressors will enable them to be more accurately treated and improve quality of life in people with ME/CFS 

PROTOCOL DESCRIPTION

The software developed would use machine learning to identify outlier anomalies that are consistent across genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics data from an individual. A report would be produced to highlight the probability of genetic mutations relating to a functional effect.

PROTOCOL DEVELOPMENT

A computer monitor with many dots, illustrating binary code.

The data required to develop this software will be immense and will consist of many previously produced datasets from our collaborators. A significant amount of priming and testing of this software will occur through the accumulation of genomics, metabolomics and symptom data from 300 ME / CFS patients.

Gene mutations, metabolite levels and symptom data will be analyzed to identify outlier metabolites and metabolites that relates strongly to symptom data. Genetic mutations and environmental factors will be considered causes of these outliers by machine-learning technology.

Software will be developed specifically to store patterns developed from patient data and more rapidly check those patterns against new patient data to rapidly identify potential issues that may be exacerbating or triggering symptoms in people with ME / CFS.

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Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) Form 

Microvesicles and viral sequencing
Microvesicles are a type of extracellular vesicle that is released from the cell membrane. Vesicles are small, fluid-filled sacs or vacuoles within the body. Sequencing is a technique used to determine the exact sequence of bases (A, C, G, and T) in a DNA (or viral) molecule.
NMR Metabolomics
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is an instrument/tool used to perform metabolic studies, metabolic profiling, and metabolomics in biofluids and tissues for more than 40 years using magnetic fields. There is a very close connection between metabolic measurements and NMR. This connection has flourished because of NMR’s many unique strengths for characterizing complex mixtures’ chemical composition.
Proteomics
The large-scale study of proteins, which are large, complex molecules that are required for structure, function, and regulation of the human body's tissues and organs.
Immune cell profiling
The immune system has many important regulatory roles in disease development and progression. Given the emergence of effective immune therapies, reliable predictors of response are needed. Immune cell profiling determines response by evaluating immune cell populations from treated and untreated samples. For our purposes, we will evaluate the white blood cell response to the viral infection using a process called “Cytof.”
Leukocyte Genomics
A leukocyte is a colorless cell circulating in the blood and body fluids and is involved in counteracting foreign substances and disease. A genome is all genetic material of an organism. Genomics is a biology field focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. Therefore, leukocyte genomics is the study of all genetic material of leukocytes.
Metabolomics
Metabolomics is a way to study metabolism – that is, through measuring amounts of the metabolites (small molecules) produced by our bodies as we convert food into energy and other molecules that our cells need to survive. Metabolomics technology is ‘large-scale,’ meaning that several thousand metabolites can be measured from a single sample of e.g., blood or urine.
Micro RNA
Cells use Micro RNA to control whether a particular gene is making too much, too little or the normal amount of its protein at a particular time.
Autoantibodies
Antibodies that react with self-molecules and that occur in healthy individuals and are referred to as natural antibodies or autoantibodies.
Extracellular DNA for viral reactivation and Mitochondrial DNA
exDNA (extracellular DNA), exDNA is often secreted actively and is used to perform several tasks, thereby offering an attractive target or tool for biotechnological, medical, environmental, and general microbiological applications. Viruses are intracellular parasites that rely to a significant extent on the host cell for replication. Viral reactivation occurs when an active replication of the viral genome results in a lytic (degradation of the cell) infection characterized by the release of new progeny (descendant) virus particles.