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Temporally Resolved Omics Tracking of ME/CFS

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).

  • Christopher Armstrong, PhD
  • Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD
  • 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.