{"id":14317,"date":"2017-09-13T08:03:34","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T08:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=14317"},"modified":"2017-09-13T08:03:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T08:03:34","slug":"molecular-underpinnings-of-mecfs-explored-at-the-open-medicine-foundation-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/molecular-underpinnings-of-mecfs-explored-at-the-open-medicine-foundation-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Molecular underpinnings of ME\/CFS explored at the Open Medicine Foundation Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health rising<\/strong> blog post, by Cort Johnson, 8 September: Molecular Underpinnings of ME\/CFS Explored at the Open Medicine Foundation Symposium<\/a><\/h3>\n

\u201cThis is not a disease that can be solved by one person. It needs a community, and lots of expertise. I will work with anybody to do this.\u201d Ron Davis<\/em><\/p>\n

…It\u2019s always humbling being in the presence of researchers talking about their research. The vast majority of conversation went right over my head.<\/p>\n

The Working Sessions and the Symposium<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a village to solve a disease and you\u2019ve created a really great village.\u201d<\/em> Bob Naviaux to Janet Dafoe during the Working Group sessions.<\/p>\n

Ron Davis<\/strong>
\nRon Davis started off the session in typical Ron Davis fashion stating that because we really don\u2019t know where to look, we\u2019re looking in as many places as we can.<\/p>\n

Davis is very focused on cellular energy production, but is keeping his options open. He\u2019s apparently seen too many sure things go by the wayside to do anything but that. The first step is to look everywhere.<\/p>\n

Davis went over the \u201cnano-needle\u201d his lab has produced and its finding of increased cell impedance when ME\/CFS cells are put under stress. Those high impedance levels suggest that ME\/CFS patients\u2019 cells are unable to meet their energy demands when put under stress.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most striking clue Davis has uncovered thus far is the ability of plasma from ME\/CFS patients to make healthy controls\u2019 cells look like ME\/CFS cells when stressed, and the ability of plasma from healthy controls to rejuvenate ME\/CFS patients\u2019 cells. Davis has found that pyruvate, a substance which bypasses glycolysis, and ATP \u2013 a signaling molecule (outside the cell) \u2013 makes ME\/CFS patients cells look healthy again. (Warning: loading up your body with pyruvate and\/or ATP could make you very, very sick.)<\/p>\n

Davis has began filtering substances out of ME\/CFS patients\u2019 plasma in an attempt to isolate the offending factor. (Note that the problem could also be a missing factor \u2013 something missing in ME\/CFS patients\u2019 blood.) The first stab indicated that the substance or compound was likely a large molecule; the next that it may be an antibody or something attached to an antibody. That\u2019s an intriguing finding given Mark Davis\u2019 belief that ME\/CFS is probably an autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n

Severe Patient Big Data Project Findings<\/strong>
\nThus far the massive project has identified 14 genes that are possibly implicated in ME\/CFS, including one highly suspect gene that had damaging mutations in every severe patient but not in a single healthy control.\"\"<\/p>\n

Davis, as usual, expressed caution; that gene \u2013 which affects serotonin processing and regulatory T-cells \u2013 could be associated with severity but may not be causing ME\/CFS; i.e. ME\/CFS might simply be worse in people with these mutations. Either way, if the finding holds up, it\u2019s a clue \u2013 an arrow pointing at an area of dysfunction.<\/p>\n

Problems with that gene could conceivably make it difficult to halt the proliferation of T-cells \u2013 ultimately putting ME\/CFS patients at risk for an autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n

Davis also clicked through a number of dead ends: cell free DNA, viruses, new pathogens, mitochondrial DNA concentrations \u2013 all of these have been normal in the severe ME\/CFS patients. Some of the tests Davis included in the Severe Patient Big Data study he thought unlikely to find answers. So why include them? Because Davis is doing his due diligence \u2013 he\u2019s searching everywhere and he\u2019s not rejecting anything without getting data on it.<\/p>\n

OMIC\u2019s studies like the Severe Patient Big Data study and the Snyder study (see below) are big, expensive, complex projects but Davis said the genome project and others have shown that they\u2019re actually quite cost-effective. (Certainly more cost-effective than a series of smaller, poorly integrated studies that sniff around the edges of a disease).<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 Working Group talk sparked a lot of interest. Chris Armstrong asked if those stressed ME\/CFS cells happened to be swelling. Davis didn\u2019t know but emphasized that they did not appear to be dying. Bob Naviaux suggested adding glucose and using a glucometer to assess glucose levels in the plasma.<\/p>\n

The nano-needle test is fast and cheap, but much more work is needed before it can be considered a diagnostic test for chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS).<\/p>\n

Read more from the Symposium<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health rising blog post, by Cort Johnson, 8 September: Molecular Underpinnings of ME\/CFS Explored at the Open Medicine Foundation Symposium \u201cThis is not a disease that can be solved by one person. It needs a community, and lots of expertise. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3967,618,715,1298,4003,2205,2260],"class_list":["post-14317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-community-symposium-on-the-molecular-basis-of-mecfs","tag-cort-johnson","tag-diagnostic-test","tag-dr-ron-davis","tag-nano-needle","tag-open-medicine-foundation","tag-severely-ill-big-data-study"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-3IV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14350,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14317\/revisions\/14350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}