Fw: Update CFS & Lyme protein in spinal fluid

[Guest guest]

The dam is starting to break.

Thanks for being the bearer of good news, Al!

From: Al Melillo <melillo3@...>Subject: Update CFS & Lyme protein in spinal fluidDate: Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 9:40 AM

Source: College Media NetworkDate: 28 februari 2011Author: LiuURL:http://news.collegemedianetwork.com/entertainment/protein-discovery-validates-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-theoryRef: http://ncrr.pnl.gov http://www.pnl.gov http://www.pnl.gov/science/staff/staff_info.asp?staff_num=5832Protein discovery validates chronic fatigue syndrome theory-----------------------------------------------------------The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey(UMDNJ)

collaborated with the Pacific Northwest NationalLaboratory (PNNL) to discover around 3,000 proteins inthe spinal fluids of people who suffer from chronicfatigue syndrome and Lyme disease."We discovered that both diseases - chronic fatiguesyndrome and post-treatment neurological Lyme disease- are central nervous system disorders," said Schutzer, professor of medicine at UMDNJ. "They havetheir own characteristic set of spinal fluid proteinsthat lets us distinguish one from the other."The two diseases were thought to be similar, and manypeople did not believe chronic fatigue syndrome had areal biological or physical basis, Schutzer said."[The discovery] provides extremely convincing evidence,in my view, that these pathologies are real anddistinguishable," said , director of theProteomics Research Program at PNNL. said this recent discovery is especially

importantfor chronic fatigue syndrome patients. "For a significantamount of patients, this will be validation that thisisn't all in their imaginations," he said. believesthe breakthrough in this study should be credited, atleast in part, to the newly available technology. "Thereare a couple of challenges with spinal fluid that limitwhat has been done previously," he said. "One is just thesmall size of the samples that are typically available.[Another is] the ability to make broad measurements thatdetect and quantify many different proteins." Thetechnology used in this study was based on massspectrometry and high-resolution liquid chromatographyseparations, said. "We used state of the artinstruments called mass spectrometers ... to identifyand quantify the proteins in the certain given sample,"said Tao Liu, PNNL senior research scientist. Applyingextensive separations reduced

the complexity of the spinalfluid sample and allowed for the identification of moreproteins in the sample, Liu said. "In the end we didarrive at a total of roughly 2,500 proteins ... which isreally the most comprehensive analysis report to date onchronic fatigue syndrome ... spinal fluid," he said.With the publication of this study, the medical worldhas a list of proteins to start making hypotheses as tothe cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, said. Thisstudy gives them the building blocks and tools to do it."Once you begin to look at the proteins and begin tounderstand which proteins are involved... you focus yourattention on what you may actually be able to do inprevention to alter the outcome," he said.Almost all drugs are targeted at proteins, said.Once a person discovers a protein that is involved incrucial biological pathways, there is potential in atleast

targeting that protein in drug development. said this study shows that the new technology used enablescareful and in-depth study of proteins in spinal fluidfor more diseases than just chronic fatigue syndrome andLyme disease. "There appear to be two distinct diseasestates when we look at the molecular level, and thereprobably are many types of cancers and many differentdisease states that we lump together because we don'tunderstand the differences," he said.The recent research development points a way to show howa lot of diseases and disease states will be studied inthe future, said. "I think these kinds ofdevelopments are going to lead to real revolutions inmedical practice," he said. " They will probably revealmany disease states that we don't know about ordistinguish at the present time and that's vital toaddressing them."