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Cell-Based Blood Biomarkers for ME/CFS (Missailidis et al., 2020)

Pyrrhus

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Cell-Based Blood Biomarkers for ME/CFS (Missailidis et al., 2020)
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/3/1142

Excerpt:
Missailidis et al 2020 said:
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a devastating illness whose biomedical basis is now beginning to be elucidated.

We reported previously that, after recovery from frozen storage, lymphocytes (peripheral blood mononuclear cells, PBMCs) from ME/CFS patients die faster in culture medium than those from healthy controls. We also found that lymphoblastoid cell lines (lymphoblasts) derived from these PBMCs exhibit multiple abnormalities in mitochondrial respiratory function and signalling activity by the cellular stress-sensing kinase Target Of Rapamycin Complex 1 (TORC1).

These differences were correlated with disease severity, as measured by the Richardson and Lidbury weighted standing test. The clarity of the differences between these cells derived from ME/CFS patient blood and those from healthy controls suggested that they may provide useful biomarkers for ME/CFS.

Here, we report a preliminary investigation into that possibility using a variety of analytical classification tools, including linear discriminant analysis, logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

We found that results from three different tests—lymphocyte death rate, mitochondrial respiratory function and TORC1 activity—could each individually serve as a biomarker with better than 90% sensitivity but only modest specificity vís a vís healthy controls. However, in combination, they provided a cell-based biomarker with sensitivity and specificity approaching 100% in our sample.

This level of sensitivity and specificity was almost equalled by a suggested protocol in which the frozen lymphocyte death rate was used as a highly sensitive test to triage positive samples to the more time consuming and expensive tests measuring lymphoblast respiratory function and TORC1 activity.

This protocol provides a promising biomarker that could assist in more rapid and accurate diagnosis of ME/CFS.
(emphasis and spacing added for readability)
 

Pyrrhus

Senior Member
Messages
4,172
Location
U.S., Earth
Updated paper on these lymphoblasts:

Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines as Models to Study Mitochondrial Function in Neurological Disorders (Annesley and Fisher, 2021)
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/9/4536/htm

Abstract:
Annesley and Fisher 2021 said:
Neurological disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, are collectively a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Whilst the underlying disease mechanisms remain elusive, altered mitochondrial function has been clearly implicated and is a key area of study in these disorders. Studying mitochondrial function in these disorders is difficult due to the inaccessibility of brain tissue, which is the key tissue affected in these diseases. To overcome this issue, numerous cell models have been used, each providing unique benefits and limitations.

Here, we focussed on the use of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) to study mitochondrial function in neurological disorders. LCLs have long been used as tools for genomic analyses, but here we described their use in functional studies specifically in regard to mitochondrial function. These models have enabled characterisation of the underlying mitochondrial defect, identification of altered signalling pathways and proteins, differences in mitochondrial function between subsets of particular disorders and identification of biomarkers of the disease.

The examples provided here suggest that these cells will be useful for development of diagnostic tests (which in most cases do not exist), identification of drug targets and testing of pharmacological agents, and are a worthwhile model for studying mitochondrial function in neurological disorders.