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

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Adaptive Therapeutic Solution Platform (MEDUSA)

From the Desk of Dr. Danielle Meadows
Vice President of Research Programs & Operations

The image features Danielle Meadows with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a dark blazer and a green top.

The four major stages of the research process that I’ve laid out in previous messages are generally applicable to any given clinical research study. But sometimes, this process can be almost cyclical rather than standalone, which is the case for the new project I want to introduce today.

At OMF’s Collaborative Center at Montreal, Dr. Moreau has built an interconnected research portfolio, where his work on one project feeds into another. In this case, his work on REMEDIAL is leading into this new study, MEDUSA, where he’s taking a precision medicine approach to trying to find effective treatments for ME/CFS.

The Heart of the Matter

  • OMF’s Collaborative Center at Montreal recently launched a new study called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Adaptive Therapeutic Solution Platform (MEDUSA).
  • The first phase of MEDUSA will identify therapeutic targets based on deep phenotyping of people with ME/CFS.
  • The study team will then identify FDA-approved drugs that can be repurposed against those therapeutic targets in pilot trials, following a precision medicine approach.
  • Each of MEDUSA’s pilot trials will start the first stage of the research process, “Study Design and IRB/Ethics Review”, while the first phase is still ongoing.
May Momentum logo

There are only 5 days left to join OMFCA’s May Momentum campaign! Honor ME/CFS Awareness Month by creating change and helping us build momentum — donate today. 💙

Your gift—no matter the size—will help us grow our clinical trial network, test more potential treatments, and move faster toward answers for people with ME/CFS and Long COVID.

Donate Hope

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Adaptive Therapeutic Solution Platform (MEDUSA)

The Open Medicine Foundation’s Collaborative Center at Montreal, directed by Dr. Alain Moreau, recently launched a new study called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Adaptive Therapeutic Solution Platform (MEDUSA). The overarching goal of MEDUSA is to explore therapeutic targets and promising treatments for ME/CFS using a precision medicine approach. 

MEDUSA consists of a couple of phases. The first phase will involve deep phenotyping of people with ME/CFS to identify therapeutic targets. In the context of MEDUSA, deep phenotyping includes health questionnaires, testing on blood and urine samples, microRNA profiling, and cognitive testing. Then, the study team will conduct pilot trials of FDA-approved drugs that can be repurposed as interventions for those therapeutic targets.

In initial work on MEDUSA phase 1, started as part of the center’s REMEDIAL study, the team found that elevated sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase acid like 3B (SMPDL3B) was correlated with symptom severity and is associated with immune dysregulation. They are exploring therapeutic approaches for a pilot trial based on these preliminary findings.

The results of phase 1 ultimately contribute to the study design, the first stage of the research process, of MEDUSA pilot trials.

The image is a flowchart with four stages of the research process: "Study Design, IRB/Ethics Review”,”Recruitment, Data Collection”, “Data Analysis” and “Publication." The first stage, "Study Design, IRB/Ethics Review" is highlighted with a teal background, indicating emphasis.

Each pilot trial resulting from phase 1 will undergo review by the Research Ethics Board in Canada in parallel with continued work on phase 1.

You can find more about this study on our website.

If you would like to be considered for participating in research opportunities like this, please consider joining our OMF StudyME Registry.

Donate Now

Consent management

Consent Preferences

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.
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.
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.