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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
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MELLOW: Tracking Hormone Fluctuations in ME/CFS and Long COVID

Study Aim

The study aims to investigate how hormone fluctuations in individuals with ME/CFS and Long COVID, compared to healthy controls, impact metabolism and immune pathways by measuring hormones, metabolites, and inflammation markers in biofluid samples.

Investigators

  • Natalie Thomas, PhD
  • Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD
  • Michal Tal, PhD
  • Bethany Pollack
  • Caroline Gurvich, DPsych
  • Paul Gooley, PhD
  • Christopher Armstrong, PhD

Updates and Potential

  • The pilot work has been completed to assess the protocol via trial run-through.
  • Recruitment for the project has begun, and this phase is expected to finish in the middle of 2025.
  • Working on publication of steroids in ME/CFS.
STUDY HYPOTHESIS AND DESCRIPTION

ME/CFS and Long COVID (LC) are conditions that are more common in females, especially during significant life stages like puberty and pregnancy. This connection suggests that sex hormones, which undergo major changes during these periods, might play a role in these illnesses. While these hormones don’t directly cause ME/CFS or LC, their interaction with the conditions indicates they could influence the underlying biological mechanisms and studying could highlight this unknown mechanism of disease.

Hormones affect various biological functions, particularly energy production and immune system function. We have launched a new study to explore this further. We will collect samples of blood and urine from individuals with LC, ME/CFS, and those without these conditions. By analyzing the levels of hormones, as well as markers of metabolism and inflammation in these samples, we aim to understand if and how hormonal fluctuations impact these bodily processes differently in those with LC or ME/CFS compared to healthy individuals. This could lead to better insights into how these conditions develop and how they could be treated.

OBJECTIVES

The image shows a female scientist working inside a lab. She is wearing a white lab coat, blue gloves, and a surgical mask. The scientist is using a pipette to transfer a liquid into a container.

  1. Track the impact of hormones on energy metabolism and immune makers in ME/CFS patients, Long COVID patients and healthy controls.
  2. Combine hormone, metabolism, and immune markers to understand how overall biology interacts with heart rate, activity, and symptoms of ME/CFS.
  3. Cluster ME/CFS patients into groups based on similar biology-symptom dynamics.
  4. After conducting a personalized biological analysis of each individual, track their biological marker response to a PEM event – from onset to recovery.

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.