Ember
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March 7th, 2013
http://phys.org/wire-news/124119794...ion-to-3-nyc-institutions-for-chronic-fa.html
New $2 Million CFS Grant Awarded to Dr. Dikoma Shungu & Team
http://phys.org/wire-news/124119794...ion-to-3-nyc-institutions-for-chronic-fa.html
Weill Cornell Medical College has been awarded more than $1.9 million by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health to lead an innovative research study using advanced neuroimaging and clinical evaluations of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The new four-year clinical study, to be conducted in collaboration with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Beth Israel Medical Center, will aim to expand the scientific understanding of CFS, improve diagnostics for the condition and discover novel biomarkers, all of which may lead to the identification of new and more effective treatment targets.....
This NIH supported clinical research study will build upon the last seven years of research conducted by the partnering institutions Weill Cornell, Mount Sinai and Beth Israel. In recent small pilot clinical studies, generously supported by The CFIDS Association of America, these three academic medical research centers have investigated CFS using sophisticated neuroimaging and battery of clinical tests. Their preliminary, small pilot study findings show the key culprit in CFS may be increased and sustained oxidative stress evidenced in the neuroimaging scans, blood and bodily fluid tests of CFS patients. Specifically, their research shows levels of cortical glutathione (GSH)—the most abundant and one of the most important antioxidants in living tissue—are decreased by 36 percent in CFS patients. This novel cortical GSH deficit finding was also correlated with those patients with increased levels of blood markers of oxidative stress and symptoms of CFS. Study results also show CFS patients also have significantly elevated ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate and decreased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF).....
However, researchers found in their pilot studies that the abnormalities identified in CFS patients are similar to the abnormalities witnessed in MDD patients. In the new study, researchers hope to decode CFS and distinguish it from neuropsychiatric conditions such as MDD. This current uncertainty makes it critical for research studies to investigate the nature of comorbidity in CFS....
Researchers believe this study is highly innovative, representing a departure from nearly all previous studies for CFS to date. They trust it may be the first comprehensive attempt to identify brain biomarkers for the condition.
"This new CFS research will help show distinct medical patterns in CFS patients helping to drive discovery of more efficient diagnostics and treatments, ultimately improving the health and quality of life of patients," says K. Kim McCleary, president & CEO of The CFIDS Association of America. "This tremendous $2 million in NIH support validates the need for more research and new treatments for this chronic illness that typically suddenly hits patients like a tornado. We hope this study closes the scientific gap for the disorder so we can halt this debilitating condition in its tracks, finally restoring hope for patients and their families battling CFS."
New $2 Million CFS Grant Awarded to Dr. Dikoma Shungu & Team
The following press release issued today announces a new $2 million research grant to a team led by Dr. Dikoma Shungu of Weill Cornell Medical College. The award from the National Institutes of Health was made based on pilot data Dr. Shungu’s team collected with support from two pilot study grants from the CFIDS Association of America. Click here for the NIH’s award summary....