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What upcoming research are we awaiting?

SOC

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I am sick to death of the politics and misery surrounding PACE and it's associated ugliness (on so many levels), although I'm thrilled to see some progress being made, mostly thanks to David Tuller. I need a change of view for a bit. I'm hoping someone can give me a lift by reminding me of any biomedical research we are expecting to see published in the next 6 months or so. Surely there's good stuff going on somewhere. :) I know there's great ongoing research like the Rituximab work in Norway, but is there anything almost ready to be published? A little something to look forward to in the near term?
 
R

RL_sparky

Senior Member
Messages
379
Location
California
Jose Montoya at Stanford has a number of projects that are working towards publishing. I'm not sure will see any of them in the next six months though. The below update is from there June newsletter.

High Throughput Sequencing/Pathogen Discovery: Through our continued partnership with Holden Maecker
PhD at Stanford and W. Ian Lipkin MD and Mady Hornig MA, MD at Columbia University, our effort of
looking for pathogens present or abundant in ME/CFS patients has yielded exciting results. We are in the
process of preparing a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

Gene Expression and Immune System Dynamics-Gene Expression: In order to understand the immune
response and possible immune dysfunction observed in our ME/CFS patients, we are collaborating closely with
Mark Davis PhD at Human Immune Monitoring Core facility at Stanford, and with Holden Maecker PhD. We
are in the process of finalizing analysis of samples and plan on submitting a manuscript shortly.

Cardiovascular Health in ME/CFS patients: Our study in collaboration with Francois Haddad MD and Mehdi
Skhiri MD of evaluating cardiovascular aging in ME/CFS patients has concluded with the recruitment and
analysis of samples. Even though their work revealed that the heart is highly unlikely to be affected by
ME/CFS, Drs. Haddad and Skhiri are now looking at endothelial function and cytokine levels before and after
physical exercise. The manuscripts are currently in preparation for publication.

Cognitive Impairment Study in ME/CFS patients: Marcie Zinn PhD, Mark Zinn MM, and José R. Maldonado
MD at Stanford University led a study utilizing electroencephalography (EEG) to yield objective measurements
for evaluating cognitive impairments in ME/CFS patients. The manuscript is currently in review for
publication.

Subgrouping Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients by Genetic and Immune Profiling: This is an ongoing
Department of Defense (DoD) grant, which aims to explore the immune responses of ME/CFS patients and how
they differ to healthy controls. We are also analyzing human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types in ME/CFS
patients, responsible for the regulation of the immune system. We are currently finalizing analysis and will
start preparing manuscript shortly.
http://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/chronicfatigue/documents/MECFSNewsletter_Spring_2015.pdf
 
SB_1108

SB_1108

Senior Member
Messages
315
RL_sparky said:
High Throughput Sequencing/Pathogen Discovery: Through our continued partnership with Holden Maecker
PhD at Stanford and W. Ian Lipkin MD and Mady Hornig MA, MD at Columbia University, our effort of
looking for pathogens present or abundant in ME/CFS patients has yielded exciting results. We are in the
process of preparing a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.
Click to expand...

I'M SO EXCITED!!!! I can't wait! :D:D:D:D:D
 
M

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
KDM and his group (boo, boo, yay, yay) haven´t published anything for a while.
 
Forbin

Forbin

Senior Member
Messages
966
Back when the CII published the plasma cytokine results in February 2015, the article on Columbia's website said this...

There are already human monoclonal antibodies on the market that can dampen levels of a cytokine called interleukin-17A that is among those the study shows were elevated in early-stage patients. Before any drugs can be tested in a clinical trial, Dr. Hornig and colleagues hope to replicate the current, cross-sectional results in a longitudinal study that follows patients for a year to see how cytokine levels, including interleukin-17A, differ within individual patients over time, depending on how long they have had the disease.
- - -​
In separate ongoing studies, they [Hornig, Lipkin, et al.] are looking for “molecular footprints” of the specific agents behind the disease—be they viral, bacterial, or fungal—as well as the longitudinal look at how plasma cytokine patterns change within ME/CFS patients and controls across a one-year period, as noted above.
https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/pu...-evidence-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-biological
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but it sounds like they're hoping to "capture" the fall in cytokine levels by frequently checking the levels in individual patients who have been ill for close to three years, but who still have the elevated levels seen in the initial years of the disease.

[Thanks to @M Paine for recalling this article on another thread.]
 
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