Survey of Anti-Pathogen Antibody Levels in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Publication Type	Academic Article
Authors	O'Neal A, Glass K, Emig C, Vitug A, Henry S, Shungu D, Mao X, Levine S, Hanson M
Journal	Proteomes
Volume	10
Issue	2
Date Published	06/13/2022
ISSN	2227-7382
Abstract	Infectious pathogens are implicated in the etiology of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) because of the occurrence of outbreaks of the disease. While a number of different infectious agents have been associated with the onset of ME/CFS, the identity of a specific organism has been difficult to determine in individual cases. The aim of our study is to survey ME/CFS subjects for evidence of an infectious trigger and/or evidence of immune dysregulation via serological testing of plasma samples for antibodies to 122 different pathogen antigens. Immune profiles were compared to age-, sex-, and BMI-matched controls to provide a basis for comparison. Antibody levels to individual antigens surveyed in this study do not implicate any one of the pathogens in ME/CFS, nor do they rule out common pathogens that frequently infect the US population. However, our results revealed sex-based differences in steady-state humoral immunity, both within the ME/CFS cohort and when compared to trends seen in the healthy control cohort.
DOI	10.3390/proteomes10020021
PubMed ID	35736801
PubMed Central ID	PMC9228258