New PHANU study on microRNA markers

Cytotoxic lymphocyte microRNAs as prospective biomarkers for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

Brenu EW, Ashton KJ, van Driel M, Staines DR, Peterson D, Atkinson GM, Marshall-Gradisnik SM.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22572093


CONCLUSIONS:

Collectively these miRNAs have been associated with apoptosis, cell cycle, development and immune function. Changes in miRNAs in cytotoxic cells may reduce the functional capacity of these cells and disrupt effective cytotoxic activity along with other immune functions in CFS/ME patients.


There is someone I would like to thank for making me aware of this but I cannot name them due to privacy considerations - but thank you anyway.

Bye, Alex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroRNA
http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-MicroRNA.aspx

Micro RNA is a tiny piece of RNA that can bind to other RNA. Doing this stops the other RNA from working. Its one way to silence genes. The pattern of how genes are switched off can give us clues to what is happening.

Three more cheers for Bond Uni (soon to be somewhere else) gang!

I think I only understand about half the words in the abstract , but I get that these microRNA molecules are underexpressed in our cytotoxic cells. Do we know what these particular underexpressed microRNA molecules do (or should be doing if they were working)? Or we still at the we-don't-know-what-this-means-but-it-doesn't-look-good stage?

Geez, Alex! You got a time machine over there?

Hi SOC, close. I am monitoring the forums for responses to my blog - saw your message and replied within minutes. Oh darn, should have claimed I had precognition ... oh, well. Bye, Alex

PS My interpretation of what this means is that the NK cells and T cells both lack sufficient suppression leading them to be doing things they shouldn't be doing.

PPS To Little Bluestem in the next post, I laughed at precognitive dysfunction.

Buts if you have ME/CFS, don't you have precognitive dysfunction?
{Sorry, couldn't resist }

This is interesting which also could explain the increased cytokine activity. I am still looking for a reason why reduced NK cell activity/numbers would correlate with increased cytokine activity and I don't think a Th2 shift can explain this. Maybe there is some sort of a feedback leading the body to cut back on NK cell numbers/activity as long as they are doing "things they are not supposed to do" and maybe they are partially responsible themselves for increased cytokine activity/secretion. cheers