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Serum cytokines in patients with moderate and severe ME/CFS

heapsreal

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http://sacfs.asn.au/news/2014/10/10..._patients_with_moderate_and_severe_me_cfs.htm

Aims
: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a disabling illness with an unknown aetiology and diagnosis is based on symptom-specific criteria. Immunological dysregulation and cytokine abnormalities are consistent in CFS/ME. As recent studies have highlighted the importance of assessing severity subgroups in the illness, the purpose of this study was to further examine the relationship between severity subgroups in CFS/ME, assessing Th1/Th2/Th17 and inflammatory cytokines in severe (housebound) and moderate (mobile) CFS/ME patients.

Methods: The Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (1994 CDC) Criteria for CFS/ME was used to define CFS/ME participants and severity scales such as the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Dr. Bell’s Disability Scale, the FibroFatigue Scale and the Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) were used to confirm CFS/ME subgroups as moderate/mobile or severe/housebound. Participants included healthy controls (n = 22, age = 40.14 + 2.38), moderate/mobile (n = 22; age = 42.09 + 2.72) and severe/housebound (n = 19; age = 40.21 + 1.57) CFS/ME patients. Serum samples were assessed using Bio-Plex Assays for cytokines analyses. Cytokines measured included IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-2, IL-7, IL-10, IL-17, TNF-α and IFNγ.

Results: The results found IL-1β was significantly reduced in severe CFS/ME compared to moderate patients (p = 0.002). IL-7 was significantly increased in the severe group compared to controls and moderate CFS/ME (p = 0.000, 0.000 respectively). IFN-γ was also increased in severe CFS/ME compared to moderate CFS/ME (p = 0.025).

Conclusion: This is the first study to show variations in cytokines in moderate and severe CFS/ME patients with all significant differences being between CFS/ME severity groups. This study supports the notion that it seems necessary for CFS/ME patient severity subgroups to be classified and identified in both research and clinical settings.

Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Source: Sharni L. Hardcastle, Ekua Brenu, Naomi Wong, Samantha Johnston, Thao Nguyen, Teilah Huth, Ally Hawthorn, Rachel Passmore, Sandra Ramos, Ali Salajegheh, Don Staines, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik.Cytokine, Volume 70, Issue 1, November 2014, Pages 45.
 

justy

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5,524
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U.K
I wonder why they didn't measure IL-8 as well. It seems to be consistently elevated in ME/CFS patients as shown in other studies.
Yes, I was looking for that in here too - my IL8 was pretty high.
 

jimells

Senior Member
Messages
2,009
Location
northern Maine
Wow, a study that actually specifically includes housebound patients. After years of extreme pessimism that anything would ever change for us, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel that is not an oncoming train.

Thanks for posting this, Heaps.
 

Lynne B

Senior Member
Messages
126
Location
sydney, australia
Yes, thanks for posting, Heapsreal. I was aware they were including severely ill patients when they put out a call earlier. I've applied with my husband to visit the clinic early next year. I don't mind flying up to them from Sydney. They are the only group offering hope based on up to date and ongoing research in Australia at the moment.

Cheers, Lynne
 

heapsreal

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australia (brisbane)
I think the clinic is currently operational, it would be good to hear from people who have been to this clinic.
At this stage im functioning well and also quite happy with my treatment under my cfs gp, so if we hear they are offering something else out of the box for treatments, that would be good. At a guess i would think they would be using their research testing like nk function etc and other cytokine type tests which would be helpful at confirming a cfs/me diagnosis and maybe get ones gp to take one more seriously instead of 'just' depression.