Cort
Phoenix Rising Founder
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"We propose that skeletal muscle fatigue is an inherent consequence of breast tumour growth, and this greater fatigue can be targeted therapeutically." Authors
J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2018 Mar 26. doi: 10.1002/jcsm.12294. Dysregulation of metabolic-associated pathways in muscle of breast cancer patients: preclinical evaluation of interleukin-15 targeting fatigue. Bohlen J1, McLaughlin SL2, Hazard-Jenkins H3, Infante AM4, Montgomery C2, Davis M5, Pistilli EE1,2,6,7.
This study is fascinating in a number of ways. For one it examined a physiological way that cancer of the breast could cause fatigue. Consider how strange it is that a small, non metastatic tumor in a breast could somehow produce enormous fatigue across the body as often happens in breast cancer.
In this study the researchers examined the gene expression patterns in a muscle biopsy taken from breast cancer patients. (I don't know if anyone has ever looked at gene expression patterns in the muscles in ME/CFS..) They found disrupted energy production pathways (oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial dysfunction, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signalling) plus issues with IL-15 signalling.
Then they examined a mouse model of breast cancer and found that mice with high levels of expression of IL-15 had reduced fatigue. In breast cancer IL-15 may be able to reduce muscle fatigue (and how nice that would be...)
ME/CFS
If IL-15 causes muscle fatigue in breast cancer could it be causing it in ME/CFS? Klimas found reductions in IL-15 in ME/CFS in one study. Another study suggested that IL-15 was one of four key cytokines in women with GWS and/or ME/CFS. Younger's preliminary study found a relationship between increased IL-15 and symptoms in GWS.
Cancer fatigue researchers are another group of researchers our research community should be interacting with and doing studies with. The IACFS/ME should have a collaboration team that seeks to build networks between ME/CFS research and people outside the field and they should invite a cancer fatigue researcher to speak at the IACFS/ME conference.