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Viral risk factors in ME/CFS

Study Aim

This project aims to characterize viral factors associated with immune responses and inflammation in ME/CFS.

Investigators

  • Dawei Li, PhD
  • Ronald Davis, PhD

Updates and Potential

  • IRB/Ethics approval completed.

  •  Samples are all collected.

  • Data collection complete and analysis nearly complete.

  • Paper drafting has begun but waiting for more guidance on data analysis workflow.

  • Another 3 months needed until paper submission.

STUDY HYPOTHESIS AND DESCRIPTION

Viral triggers of immune response in ME/CFS have long been speculated but remain poorly understood. Germline endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) and somatic viral infections both have significant impacts on immune response and have been studied for years; however, the previous studies mainly focused on commonly tested viral pathogens or several known ERV candidates. Not surprisingly, none has been proven to be common to ME/CFS patients. A comprehensive analysis of the full spectrum of ERVs and the virome is likely to change our understanding of the roles of ERVs and viral infections in ME/CFS. This proposal is aimed to develop novel algorithms to investigate the contributions of genome-wide ERVs and the human virome to ME/CFS.

OBJECTIVES

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  1. Investigate somatic viral infections (such as the human virome and virome-wide viral infections) and germline viral sequences (such as endogenous retrovirus variants) in patient genomes.
  2. Develop the analytic methods based on a novel algorithm and apply it to the pilot dataset from ME/CFS patients.
  3. Identify viral factors associated with ME/CFS and/or related phenotypes.