Tests of blood-borne DNA pinpoint tissue damage

[Marco]

When diseases cause tissue damage DNA fragments are released into the bloodstream. When a disease primarily causes damage to a specific organ or cell (pancreatic cancer, pancreatic beta cells in diabetes, brain oligodendrocytes in MS or glial/neuronal death in traumatic brain injury) it may be possible to identify the 'unique signature' from a simple blood test.

It would be nice to apply this technology to ME/CFS although I suspect you would need to have a fair idea where where you should be looking :

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/tests-blood-borne-dna-pinpoint-tissue-damage

 

[justy]

When diseases cause tissue damage DNA fragments are released into the bloodstream. When a disease primarily causes damage to a specific organ or cell (pancreatic cancer, pancreatic beta cells in diabetes, brain oligodendrocytes in MS or glial/neuronal death in traumatic brain injury) it may be possible to identify the 'unique signature' from a simple blood test.

It would be nice to apply this technology to ME/CFS although I suspect you would need to have a fair idea where where you should be looking :

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/tests-blood-borne-dna-pinpoint-tissue-damage

When Myhill tested me I had a VERY high cell free DNA - would this be related in any way?

 

[Marco]

When Myhill tested me I had a VERY high cell free DNA - would this be related in any way?

Hard to know without knowing what test she uses?

 

[justy]

Its part of the mito profile done through acumen. Just says 'Cell free DNA' its a blood test if that helps...

 

[Marco]

Its part of the mito profile done through acumen. Just says 'Cell free DNA' its a blood test if that helps...

From what I can see, unless you're looking for something specific, it's just a non-specific indication and normal values can vary markedly.

 

[anciendaze]

If you don't distinguish nuclear and mitochondrial DNA what you will get from a measurement of cell-free DNA could be almost entirely mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria outnumber nuclei by factors of thousands. This seems a reasonable measure for a mitochondrial panel, but it won't identify specific tissues because every living human cell has mitochondria.

I'm also curious about the way they deal with viral DNA. Recall that at least 8% of human genomes are viral DNA.

 

[Justin30]

Maybe they could try the test on early diagnosed ME. See where the cells are sheading from then possibly look for early intervention strategies.

Just a thought. I think organ damage in ME comes about much later at least from what I have read.