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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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Temporally Resolved Omics Tracking of ME/CFS

Study AIM

This study seeks to understand the biological mechanisms driving the symptomatology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) using metabolomic and lipidomic high-throughput analysis and high-frequency blood sampling over a 6.5 to 7.5 hour period conducted at two separate sites (Melbourne and Uppsala).

LEAD INVESTIGATORS
  • Christopher Armstrong, PhD
  • Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD
Updates and Potential
  • IRB/Ethics approval completed.
  • Samples are all collected.
  • Over 3000 samples collected and each will be initially analysed with NMR and MS metabolomics.
STUDY HYPOTHESIS AND DESCRIPTION

A growing body of literature suggests that energy, amino, and lipid metabolism are clearly implicated in the pathophysiology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Although many studies have shown differences in several metabolites and lipids between ME/CFS and control populations, no single metabolite has been demonstrated to be consistently observed through these studies. This may be due to the high variability amongst ME/CFS patients both clinically and biologically speaking.

One way to overcome this is to conduct repeated measures study designs whereby numerous biological replicates are collected for each patient and control, allowing for each subject to act as their own control. This reduces sources of variation and controls for factors that cause variability between subjects, and is an important technique for research into highly variable or heterogenous populations like ME/CFS.

This study proposes to measure metabolites and lipid species using a novel, sophisticated repeated-measures study design. This will help elucidate the biological mechanisms driving ME/CFS symptoms, and works towards finding clinically useful diagnostic blood tests, and new treatment avenues for ME/CFS patients based on the underlying patho-biology.

OBJECTIVES

Female scientist performing blood test while working at a microscope in a laboratory.

  1. Pattern biology that corresponds to patient symptoms over the course of a day in two international cohorts.
  2. Track the biological impact of meals, social tasks, mental tasks and exercise tasks on ME/CFS patients compared to controls.
  3. Cluster patients based on similar biology-symptom dynamics.

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.