Links to media coverage of the Naviaux study (Aug 30, 2016)

[Cheshire]

Let's provide traffic to the good articles. Maybe at some point someone can provide a synopsis of the French article so we have the gist of it.

Is Grazia well respected with a large circulation? @Cheshire

Not really. It's a brainless fashion magazine, but I think it has a large circulation.

 

[sarah darwins]

Chronic-fatigue syndrome

Blood simple?

A new test may diagnose a mysterious illness, and also help to explain it
http://www.economist.com/news/scien...erious-illness-and-also-help-explain-it-blood

Excellent. Another respected journal didn't think the SMC's response merited a mention (which it doesn't)

 

[Bob]

Chronic-fatigue syndrome

Blood simple?

A new test may diagnose a mysterious illness, and also help to explain it
http://www.economist.com/news/scien...erious-illness-and-also-help-explain-it-blood

This article is actually a very good introduction to the study, and explains the dauer/hibernation issue very well. The author has done their homework! If you can ignore the slightly (very) irritating intro to CFS in the first couple of paragraphs, then it's worth a read.

I'll park the text here (see the spoiler) for a few minutes for anyone who can't access it. And I'll delete it later.

Spoiler: Economist article

Chronic-fatigue syndrome

Blood simple?
A new test may diagnose a mysterious illness, and also help to explain it

From the print edition | Science and technology
Sep 1st 201

CHRONIC-FATIGUE SYNDROME, or CFS, which afflicts over 1m people in America and 250,000 in Britain, is certainly chronic and surely fatiguing. But is it truly a syndrome, a set of symptoms reliably associated together and thought to have a single underlying cause—in other words, a definable disease?

CFS’s symptoms—debilitating exhaustion often accompanied by pain, muscle weakness, sleep problems, “brain fog” and depression—overlap with those of other conditions. These include fibromyalgia (itself the subject of existential doubt), clinical depression, insomnia and other sleep disorders, anaemia and diabetes. These overlaps lead some to be sceptical about CFS’s syndromic nature. They also mean many people with CFS spend years on an expensive “diagnostic odyssey” to try to find out what is going on.

Scepticism about CFS’s true nature is reinforced by the number of causes proposed for it. Viruses, bacteria, fungi and other types of parasite have all had the finger pointed at them. So have various chemicals and physical trauma. Evidence that CFS truly does deserve all three elements of its name has accumulated over the years but a definitive diagnostic test has remained elusive. Until, perhaps, now. For in this week’sProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Robert Naviaux of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues published evidence that the metabolisms of those diagnosed with CFS are all changing in the same way. Their data suggest it is this cellular response to CFS-triggering traumas, and not the way the response is set in motion, which should define the illness. They also show that this response produces a chemical signal that might be used for diagnosis.

Dr Naviaux and his team collected and analysed blood samples from 45 people who had been diagnosed with CFS, and also from 39 controls who were free of any CFS-related symptom. They then trawled through those samples looking at the levels of 612 specific chemicals, known as metabolites, which are produced during the day-to-day operations of living cells.

These metabolite profiles, they found, differed clearly and systematically between the patients and the controls. Some 20 metabolic pathways were affected, with most patients having about 40 specific abnormalities. The biggest differences were in levels of sphingolipids, which are involved in intercellular communication, though other molecules played a role as well. These differences should give clues as to what is happening at a cellular level during CFS. More immediately, a handful of the abnormalities—eight in men and 13 in women—were enough, collectively, to diagnose with greater than 90% accuracy who had the disease.

That is a good start. If this discovery is to lead to a reliable test for CFS, though, Dr Naviaux’s experiment will have to be repeated to compare those diagnosed as having CFS with those who are not so diagnosed yet display some of its symptoms. The answer should soon become apparent, for he is already applying his method to people who have depression, autism, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic-stress disorder.

One crucial question that needs an answer if CFS is to be understood better is: what cellular changes are these metabolic abnormalities bringing about? Here, Dr Naviaux has already made an intriguing and slightly disturbing discovery. Similar metabolite profiles to those seen in CFS are characteristic of a state known as “dauer” that occurs in one of biology’s most-studied animals, a soil-dwelling threadworm called C. elegans (pictured). In dauer, which is reminiscent of hibernation in larger creatures, the worm puts its development on hold and enters a state of suspended animation in response to threats such as reduced food, water or oxygen levels. It can survive this way for months, though the lifespan of an active worm is mere weeks.

It may be a coincidence, but six of the diagnostic metabolites whose levels are low in CFS are also low in dauer. If it is not a coincidence, though, that suggests a biochemical overlap between the two conditions. If this were true, it could be of great value both in understanding CFS’s underlying biology and (because C. elegans is so well examined and easy to study) in experimenting with potential treatments.

 

[Sidereal]

If you can ignore the slightly (very) irritating intro to CFS in the first couple of paragraphs, then it's worth a read.

Very irritating indeed. I got the impression the author was trying to sound all smart but unfortunately came across sounding quite ignorant. But the study coverage part of the article was probably the best so far.

 

[slysaint]

It's a brainless fashion magazine

I wonder if 'Elle' magazine, (recently singing the praises of 'it's all in your head') should be informed of the latest developments?

 

[worldbackwards]

Very irritating indeed. I got the impression the author was trying to sound all smart but unfortunately came across sounding quite ignorant. But the study coverage part of the article was probably the best so far.

Certainly a step forward for The Economist, last seen lecturing us about how we should bow down in front of PACE.

 

[Kalliope]

Another mention in Norwegian media, this time in Bergens Tidende, the local paper of the town Bergen - where Fluge&Mellas research takes place. The title is: "ME-patients resembles animals in hibernation"

The article is behind a paywall, so this is from a short summary I found on Facebook. It seems the article is based on the press release from Science Media Centre (and psychiatrist McIntosh's views are included), but in addition:

A retired professor in neurology, Harald Nyland (he is from Bergen, and has relentlessly worked for decades for ME-patients) says in the article that the trial makes sense and correlates with his observations. The secretary-general of The Norwegian ME Association Olav Osland (also from Bergen) is glad for all proofs of ME being a physiological disease, and that it seems researchers throughout the world have started a race to find biomarkers.

ps: I managed to post this in wrong thread earlier, and have moved it here. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Biarritz13]

@Cheshire where did they get this from??
"Ils ont constaté que les bactéries intestinales de ces personnes étaient bien moins diverses que dans le cas d'une personne lambda."

They also talked about Hanson's study. Sorry i'm brainfogged, I can't tell you more.

The journalist wrote

"Des anomalies biologiques détectées récemment
Elle a longtemps été perçue comme une maladie psychologique mais de récentes études tendent à montrer qu'il serait d'origine biologique. Il s'agirait en réalité d'une perturbation du système immunitaire. Deux études, une publiée dans la revue PNAS et une autre dans le journal Microbiome, font progresser les connaissances en la matière."

"Biologic anomalies have been detected recently
It has been perceived as a mental illness for a long time but recent studies shows that it would have a biological origin. In reality, it would be due to a perturbation of the immune system. Two studies, one published in PNAS and another one in the journal Microbiome, accelerate its knowledge."

Then she continues about the microbiome study for a few lines. Nothing more about Naviaux's.

 

[dancer]

Has anyone mentioned this one (posted yesterday in the Huffington Post)?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ture-in-the-blood_us_57c84eb1e4b078581f117fd5

Good overview of the study (but sadly another silly picture of a languid person sleeping in a chair)

 

[worldbackwards]

sadly another silly picture of a languid person sleeping in a chair

To be fair, all 250,000 UK sufferers do own that pink phone.

 

[dancer]

LOL! The photo makes it look like she drank some hot cocoa laced with sleep meds and passed out, still clutching her cup.

 

[Bob]

sadly another silly picture of a languid person sleeping in a chair

Well, I for one, am always dressed in my office attire even when I'm too weak to stand up or walk to the toilet, or too ill too eat. And i look especially fetching in a pair of office shoes like that, which i always wear at home. (OK, I'm exaggerating about the shoes!)

 

[AndyPR]

I don't think this one has been posted yet?

Findings of research facilitated by the Open Medicine Foundation could be set to rock the world of medicine, writes Action for M.E. Volunteer Pharmacist Emily Beardall.

Published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and reported in UK press including the Telegraph and the Economist, the study looked closely at the blood chemistry in people with M.E. with a research technique called “metabolomics.” This involves measuring the chemicals in our blood created by the different steps and by-products of metabolising, or breaking down, the energy and nutrients from our food into the chemicals that can be used for energy, hormones and building blocks of new cells.

https://www.actionforme.org.uk/news/​new-research-distinct-biological-differences-in-me/

 

[sarah darwins]

So, I thought I'd wait to see if they included it in their weekend sections, but no, The Guardian didn't feel the need to report on this (unlike most of their rivals). Either they couldn't understand the significance of it, didn't care, or they were worried about alienating the sizeable "Oo, the power of the mind — it's just amazing, ya?" constituency among their readers.

edit: on the plus side, Guardian Science did find room for a lengthy article on the subject of male pattern baldness: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/04/male-hair-loss-baldness-surgery-drugs

Good to see they have their priorities straight.

 

[mango]

Here's a press release from RME (the Swedish ME Association):
https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pressreleases/banbrytande-studie-ger-svar-om-svaar-sjukdom-1545867

Google translate link:
https://translate.google.se/transla...-ger-svar-om-svaar-sjukdom-1545867&edit-text=

 

[Sidereal]

Biological evidence of chronic fatigue syndrome found in sufferers’ blood

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/sif...hronic-fatigue-syndrome-found-sufferers-blood

 

[Kalliope]

Well written article from The Washington Post which also includes relevant links
Chronic fatigue syndrome may be a human version of "hibernation"

 

[Cheshire]

Well written article from The Washington Post which also includes relevant links
Chronic fatigue syndrome may be a human version of "hibernation"

I'm a bit perplexed by this statement that the journalist attributes to Ron Davis:

Davis said it’s possible that the treatment may not be anything radical; it might involve putting the body back in balance with the right mix of diet and supplements.

 

[mfairma]

Not bad overall. But 2.5 million prevalence is conservative?

 

[AndyPR]

I'm a bit perplexed by this statement that the journalist attributes to Ron Davis:

OK, I'm only going by memory, so may be totally wrong, but I think Ron said something like this in his IiME speech. Can anybody else confirm or deny it?