On reading the results of Chan, Brink
et al, one thought that occurred to me is this:
Lymph nodes are generally swollen in ME/CFS (lymphadenopathy is the technical term for swollen lymph nodes).
Could lymph node swelling to some extent block the lymph node's access to the "outside world", ie, to the rest of the body, effectively making the germinal centers within the lymph nodes more distant from the target self-antigens of the autoantibodies?
If so, the swollen lymph nodes of ME/CFS may be, in part, causing the autoimmunity and autoantibodies of ME/CFS.
Thus some form of lymph node treatment that addresses the swelling (and the supposed blocked of state of the lymph node) may be helpful for ME/CFS.
This also ties in with Raymond Perrin's view that lymphatic congestion and dysfunction is a causal factor in ME/CFS. The idea could be that lymphatic congestion blocks a lymph node's access to the rest of the body.
And I wonder what would happen if you injected minute quantities of your body's own target self-antigens into your lymph nodes? Would that instantly switch off the autoimmunity and autoantibody production?
Two known self-antigens in ME/CFS are
cardiolipin antibodies 1 (cardiolipin is found on the inner mitochondrial membranes), and
muscarinic receptor antibodies 1 (these muscarinic receptors are found on the postganglionic sections of the parasympathetic nervous system). In both cases, these self-antigens are ubiquitous, and found all over the body, so they would not be very physically distant from the germinal centers within the lymph nodes.
