NIH-Sponsored Study Shows Lyme Different from CFS or FM

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NIH-Sponsored Study Shows Lyme Different from CFS or FM

Sciencenews explanation:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/70251/title/Tired,_sure,_but_is_it_fr\

om_Lyme_disease_or_chronic_fatigue%3F

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022305444.html

www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017287

Proteins found in the spinal fluid may be used as biomarkers to help doctors cut

through the clutter of symptoms that show up in two groups of patients — those

with chronic fatigue syndrome and others with lingering effects from Lyme

disease. Different sets of proteins discovered in the two groups indicate these

are distinct and distinguishable disorders and that both involve the central

nervous system, researchers report in the February PLoS One .

“This provides strong evidence of a biological component†in these

conditions, says study coauthor Schutzer, a physician and immunologist at

the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark. “There are

abnormalities in the spinal fluid, which is really a liquid window on the

brain.â€

In the new study, Schutzer and his colleagues analyzed spinal fluid samples from

three groups — 11 healthy people, 43 diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome

and 25 previously treated for Lyme disease but who were still experiencing

cognitive problems and fatigue.

Analysis of the fluid samples detected more than 2,600 proteins in each group.

Most of the proteins appeared in all three groups. But 692 proteins turned up

only in the Lyme patients and 738 others showed up only in the chronic fatigue

group.

Some of the condition-specific proteins may ultimately serve as biomarkers,

Schutzer says. Identifying 20 or 30 proteins that show up consistently in a

condition — but not in healthy people — could form the basis of a diagnostic

test for the ailment.

ph Breen, a biochemist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious

Diseases in Bethesda, Md. says: “What’s exciting is that it looks like

they’ve been able to tease out differences†between groups of people with

these conditions. This finding will need to be validated in more spinal fluid

samples from greater numbers of people who have these conditions, he says. A

test using blood samples would be even better, since blood is more easily

obtained, Breen says.

(but note that thyroid treatment usually improves chronic fatigue/joint

pain/etc. irregardless)