Tag: Davis

A Glimpse into Dr. Ron Davis’ Talk in London

From Open Medicine Foundation.
June 1, 2018

Dear Friends,

I prepared this statement for Ashley Haugen to read yesterday at the Western Massachusetts  Department of Public Health screening of Unrest. This is new information from the Severely ill Patient Study (SIPS) that I also presented in London:

“We have made considerable progress in analyzing the data from the severely ill patient study. This has taken some time because we have only had one bioinformatic scientist analyzing the massive amount of data.

We have found that there are a considerable number of mutations that are more common in ME/CFS patients than in healthy controls. This would suggest that these mutations make a patient more susceptible to having ME/CFS. It could also indicate that some of the mutations are responsible for the severity of the patients we studied. We also see a large number of metabolomic changes that have been previously seen in less severe patients. These metabolomic differences between healthy controls and our severely ill patients are often much bigger than in studies with less severe patients. A more detailed analysis of this data may aid us in developing treatments.

One area we are currently studying using the genetic and metabolomic data is the possibility there may be one or more metabolic traps. This is a metabolic state that a patient can develop, possibly caused by physical stress such as infection. Once a patient is in this state they cannot easily get out by rest.

We are conducting system biology and pathway analysis that shows that a metabolic trap is possible, and that some of the observed mutations make it more likely. If this is the case we should be able to push the patients out of this state by a specific metabolic intervention. We are very hopeful that this could be a one time treatment, take only a few days, and be relatively inexpensive.”

Sending greetings from London,

Ronald W. Davis, PhD
Director, OMF ME/CFS Scientific Advisory Board
Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center

Value of Circulating Cytokine Profiling During Submaximal Exercise Testing in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract:

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a heterogeneous syndrome in which patients often experience severe fatigue and malaise following exertion. Immune and cardiovascular dysfunction have been postulated to play a role in the pathophysiology. We therefore, examined whether cytokine profiling or cardiovascular testing following exercise would differentiate patients with ME/CFS.

Twenty-four ME/CFS patients were matched to 24 sedentary controls and underwent cardiovascular and circulating immune profiling. Cardiovascular analysis included echocardiography, cardiopulmonary exercise and endothelial function testing. Cytokine and growth factor profiles were analyzed using a 51-plex Luminex bead kit at baseline and 18 hours following exercise. Cardiac structure and exercise capacity were similar between groups.

Sparse partial least square discriminant analyses of cytokine profiles 18 hours post exercise offered the most reliable discrimination between ME/CFS and controls (κ = 0.62(0.34,0.84)). The most discriminatory cytokines post exercise were CD40L, platelet activator inhibitor, interleukin 1-β, interferon-α and CXCL1. In conclusion, cytokine profiling following exercise may help differentiate patients with ME/CFS from sedentary controls.

Source: Kegan J. Moneghetti, Mehdi Skhiri, Kévin Contrepois, Yukari Kobayashi, Holden Maecker, Mark Davis, Michael Snyder, Francois Haddad & Jose G. Montoya. Value of Circulating Cytokine Profiling During Submaximal Exercise Testing in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Scientific Reports volume 8, Article number: 2779 (2018). doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20941-w. Received:02 November 2017. Accepted:26 January 2018. Published online:09 February 2018. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20941-w (Full article)