Re: Study finds clue to chronic fatigue, chronic Lyme

[Guest guest]

Thanks! That's very interesting.

Connie

[ ] Study finds clue to chronic fatigue, chronic Lyme

Proteins found in the spinal fluid may serve 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. " But he cautions that the findings represent a first step in seeking

biomarkers for the conditions and don't reveal whether these different protein

signatures cause the syndromes or result from them.

Chronic fatigue is a baffling condition marked by prolonged and severe tiredness

that isn't resolved by rest. Its cause is unknown and is often difficult to

diagnose and treat. Women are most commonly affected.

Lyme disease results from infection by Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium spread

by deer ticks. It is treatable with antibiotics, but infections can go

unnoticed, delaying treatment. Also, despite clearing the bacterial infection,

some patients continue to have longer-term symptoms, including fatigue.

Scientists have wondered whether such post-treatment Lyme problems are a form of

chronic fatigue, but a connection has never been ascertained.

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.

" I think this a great first step, " says ph Breen, a biochemist at the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. " 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.

The new data also provide leads for other researchers to investigate, such as

discerning functional roles of proteins that show up in only one condition. This

could shed light on the molecular biomechanisms underpinning symptoms seen in

patients, Schutzer

science News

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

om_Lyme_disease_or_chronic_fatigue%3F

[Guest guest]

> Different sets of proteins discovered in the two groups indicate these are

distinct and distinguishable disorders and that both involve the central nervous

system

just to be sure, the main conclusion is that CFS and chronic Lyme are different

diseases (and not two flavours of the same problem). It is premature to say this

suggests an infectious cause for both.

Also, it remains to be seen how clear the difference between the two patient

groups, and the difference with healthy subjects, is going to be with larger

patient numbers.

But it is interesting research. If they find reliable biomarkers for both

diseases, that would be a step in the right direction (but with the wide variety

in Lyme and CFS symptoms, that seems unlikely to me).

Schutzer (one of the authors) is also involved in the DNA sequencing of many

Borrelia genomes, so maybe they can try to link such a future 'chronic lyme

biomarker' to certain Bb genes?

[Guest guest]

Hopefully they don't all come down with convenient memory loss like the poor

researcher in " under our skin " who conveniently came down with memory loss and

can't remember any of his research.

Hmmm convenient. I just cried when I found that out.

Anne

[Guest guest]

>

> Hopefully they don't all come down with convenient memory loss like the poor

researcher in " under our skin " who conveniently came down with memory loss and

can't remember any of his research.

just to be sure: I think you are talking about Mac, he is fully on our

side. His disease is a real loss, because he was doing important and original

research with private money. Quite the opposite from IDSA ducks like Steere and

the Worm who do totally unoriginal and severely flawed research, while burning

millions of taxpayer dollars.

P.S. regarding the CFS/Lyme XMRV retrovirus link: I'm just reading an

interesting book, Virolution, that explains how about half of our human DNA is

of viral (often retroviral) origin. And some of those retroviruses in our own

DNA are still active, sometimes in very important functions related to brain

function, fertility etc.

There is more than just a 'bad' side to retroviruses, and taking anti-retroviral

drugs against a potential agent causing CFS etc. seems premature and dangerous

to me. The latest research that sheds more doubt on the XMRV-CFS hypothesis only

confirms this.

The research of Mac points out that similar issues, viral DNA integrating

in our human DNA. occur with Alzheimers and possibly with Lyme (it is the same

Bb bug after all). I'm suspecting the Borrelia prophage is causing this, but

that remains just a guess until now.