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

Donate
Sign Up
Main Menu

Skeletal Muscle Dysfunction Research

STUDY AIM
This project aims to explore the biological changes that occur in the muscles during Post-exertional Malaise (PEM).
LEAD INVESTIGATORS

  • Wenzhong Xiao, PhD
  • Philip Atherton, PhD
  • Paul Greenhaff, PhD

    • UPDATES AND POTENTIAL
    The skeletal muscle genomics have been completed and the analysis is underway to include metabolic modeling

    STUDY HYPOTHESIS AND DESCRIPTION

    Post Exertional Malaise (PEM) is the key feature of ME/CFS, given the extensive characterization of muscle exertion and recovery in healthy people, the evaluation may indicate how the disease perpetuates.

    The hypothesis is that the inflammation-related recovery mechanisms become dysfunctional in the ME/CFS disease, and this dysregulation causes a delayed recovery of muscle after exertional stress.

     OBJECTIVES

    Muscle biopsy samples will be taken from ME/CFS patients both at rest and eventually during their recovery from mild to moderate muscular stress. Comparisons will be made to healthy volunteers also at rest, during recovery from muscular stress, and during immobilization.

    Using muscle samples, this study will examine the following:
    Genomics

    • Proteomics
    • Metabolomics
    • Phospho-proteomics
    • Ultrastructural analysis
    • Mitobiogenetic markers

    Read more at the Harvard site 

    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.