Orosomucoid as potential biomarker for CFS

[A.B.]

Researchers from China were studying fatigue in an animal model and found an association between fatigue and blood levels of orosomucoid. They then tested CFS patients fulfilling Fukuda criteria and found dramatically increased orosomucoid levels in patients compared to controls.

Orosomucoid is an acute phase protein, increased by inflammation.

There is an article on this here: http://www.meresearch.org.uk/news/orosomucoid-and-mecfs/

 

[Never Give Up]

From Wikipedia:

Orosomucoid (ORM) or alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (α1AGp,[1] AGP or AAG) is an acute phase (acute phase protein) plasma alpha-globulin glycoprotein and is modulated by two polymorphic genes. It is synthesized primarily in hepatocytes and has a normal plasma concentration between 0.6-1.2 mg/mL (1-3% plasma protein).[2] Plasma levels are affected by pregnancy, burns, certain drugs, and certain diseases, particularly HIV.[2]

There it is, again.

 

[Hutan]

@Ben Howell, it would be good to know if this orosomucoid protein is being measured in serum in the OMF Big Data project.

Would be good to know if the NIH project will screen for this protein too. How do we ask?

Would be nice to see the measurement of orosomucoid in CSF too:

No published evidence exists to support an association between raised ORM and ME/CFS, apart from the presence of ORM2 (one of the two isoforms of ORM) in a set of 5 proteins found to be increased the cerebrospinal fluid of ME/CFS patients in a study in 2005

I understand it is likely to be a downstream effect, if indeed the finding can be replicated. But any measurable abnormality is useful.

 

[snowathlete]

Orosomucoid is elevated in active IDB and correlates well with disease activity. My ME is worse when my colitis is in a flare or if i forget to take my mesalazine medication.

 

[dreampop]

I wonder what the Chinese think of CFS. I thought Cort's article about the Japanese researchers studying fatigue was pretty insightful and something you wouldn't come across on your own.

 

[alex3619]

There are now probably hundreds of such markers. We need these markers to be tested, and we need to know about sensitivity and specificity.

Markers that are shared with other diseases are not generally considered that useful, at least for diagnostic purposes. Unique markers, or marker combinations that are unique, are more useful.

That being said such markers are useful to show pathophysiology, and useful as clues.

 

[kangaSue]

Orosomucoid as a marker in IBD;
Orosomucoid (α1-acid glycoprotein) is an acute phase protein synthesized predominantly in the liver in response to tissue injury, inflammation or infection, and it may have a physiological role such as immunomodulation. The levels of circulating orosomucoid correlate with disease activity of IBD as assessed by standard disease activity indices but a long half life of 5 days limits its usefulness as an indicator of improvement in disease activity.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/552624_2

Orosomucoid is elevated in active IDB and correlates well with disease activity. My ME is worse when my colitis is in a flare or if i forget to take my mesalazine medication.

This paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19685450 could relate to another reason for your colitis flares. I was talking to a senior IBD specialist seeking a second opinion about this type of intestinal ischemia as it's something that I have but without having IBD and he was unaware that it was even in the pipeline as a possible causative in IBD.

 

[Simon]

Terrific write-up from ME Research UK (as usual). The key point is there was almost no overlap between ORM levels in patients and controls (which is unusual in 'biomarker' studies'). Obviously incredibly early days, but an interesting finding all the same.

Orosomucoid and ME/CFS | ME Research UK
Compared with a healthy control group, ORM levels were dramatically elevated in blood serum in Fukuda-defined CFS patients (Figure below). Indeed, ORM levels were <1 mg/mL in all the healthy controls, but >1 mg/mL in all except one of the ME/CFS patients. ORM expression was not related to serum cortisol level as might have been expected (see a review); hypocortisolism was present in the ME/CFS patients, as expected, but to a mild degree.

This result is reported in short letter format, and aims only to bring this unusual phenomenological finding to a wider audience. No published evidence exists to support an association between raised ORM and ME/CFS, apart from the presence of ORM2 (one of the two isoforms of ORM) in a set of 5 proteins found to be increased the cerebrospinal fluid of ME/CFS patients in a study in 2005 (read more). So, a cloud of unknowing hangs over the meaning and validity of this single observation.

 

[snowathlete]

This paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19685450 could relate to another reason for your colitis flares. I was talking to a senior IBD specialist seeking a second opinion about this type of intestinal ischemia as it's something that I have but without having IBD and he was unaware that it was even in the pipeline as a possible causative in IBD.

I don't think so in my case. My UC was very clearly caused by long term antibiotic use. It killed off most of the bacteria in my colon.