{"id":43934,"date":"2024-07-10T08:56:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T07:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=43934"},"modified":"2024-07-10T08:57:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T07:57:25","slug":"treatment-research-immunoglobulin-therapy-in-me-cfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/treatment-research-immunoglobulin-therapy-in-me-cfs\/","title":{"rendered":"Treatment research: Immunoglobulin Therapy in ME\/CFS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Successful subcutaneous Immunoglobulin Therapy in patients with ME\/CFS<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Swedish researchers have found promising effects on symptoms in 17 people with infection associated ME\/CFS from subcutaneous<\/a> treatment (under the skin) with low-dose Immunoglobulin (IG) – Hizentra<\/a>. Immunoglobulins are antibodies found in white blood cells that fight infection. Low levels suggest your immune system is not functioning well.<\/p>\n

Patients were predominantly female (65%) with mild-to-moderate disease severity (82%) and with poor self-reported quality of life and working ability before treatment.<\/p>\n

\"\"This is thought to be the first study of subcutaneous IG as previously studies tested intravenous<\/a> or intramuscular<\/a> IG treatment, which results in much higher drug doses.<\/p>\n

The findings from this case series (i.e. not a Randomized control trial – RCT) merit further investigation through well-controlled trials on subcutaneous IG treatment of patients with ME\/CFS selected for being potential responders to the treatment.<\/p>\n

Successful subcutaneous Immunoglobulin Therapy in a case series of patients with ME\/CFS<\/a> by Per Sjogren, Bjorn Brag\u00e9e, Sven Britton in<\/span> Clinical Therapeutics\u00a0<\/em>June 22, 2024 [doi.org\/10.1016\/j.clinthera.2024.05.010]<\/p>\n

Research abstract:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Purpose<\/strong>
\nMyalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS) remains an enigma with no curable treatment options at hand. Although patients with ME\/CFS are a heterogeneous group, a large proportion of patients present with an infection-driven symptomatology, making them potential responders to immunologic treatments, such as immunoglobulin (IG). Previous studies on IG treatment in patients with ME\/CFS have not been consistent but have described beneficial effects in subgroups of patients.<\/p>\n

Methods<\/strong>
\nHere we present data on a series of cases (n = 17) with infection-related ME\/CFS (as defined by disease history and ongoing recurrent infections) treated with subcutaneous low-dose IG (0.06 g\/kg\/mo) over 5 weeks with continuous monitoring of symptoms.<\/p>\n

Findings<\/strong>
\nPatients were predominantly female (65%) with mild-to-moderate disease severity (82%) and with poor self-reported quality of life (median, 25 on a 0\u2013100 scale) and working ability (median, 5 on a 0\u2013100 scale) before treatment. After 5 weeks of treatment with low-dose IG, significant improvements in symptoms, quality of life, and working ability were noted (all P < 0.05). Among the 7 patients who reported the highest benefit of the treatment, quality of life increased by 35 units (on a 0\u2013100 scale), with 1 patient reporting complete elimination of ME\/CFS symptoms. No serious side effects were detected with the treatment.<\/p>\n

Implications<\/strong>
\nIn this limited-sized case series, we found pronounced beneficial effects of low-dose IG in a large proportion of patients with infection-related ME\/CFS. Further well-controlled studies are needed to verify the potential benefits of IG treatment in patients with ME\/CFS with infection-driven symptomatology.<\/p>\n

NB<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Back in 2021 our medical adviser Dr Nigel Speight and colleague Helen Brownlie wroe a paper suggesting a role for IG Therapy in ME\/CFS.<\/p>\n

Back to the Future? Immunoglobulin therapy for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis\/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome<\/a>, by\u00a0 Helen Brownlie\u00a0and Nigel Speight\u00a0in\u00a0Healthcare<\/em>\u00a02021, 9(11), 1546; [doi.org\/10.3390\/healthcare9111546]\u00a0 \u00a012 Nov 2021 (This article belongs to the Special Issue\u00a0ME\/CFS \u2013 the Severely and Very Severely Affected)<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Successful subcutaneous Immunoglobulin Therapy in patients with ME\/CFS   Swedish researchers have found promising effects on symptoms in 17 people with infection associated ME\/CFS from subcutaneous treatment (under the skin) with low-dose Immunoglobulin (IG) – Hizentra. Immunoglobulins are antibodies found … 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":[],"class_list":["post-43934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-bqC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43934","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=43934"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43995,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43934\/revisions\/43995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}