I'm apathetic about the treatment, but I would like to shed some light on the cytokines in ME/CFS.
I think the cytokine profiles for LC and ME/CFS match up a bit better when you take a closer look.
For instance, RANTES (CCL5). I guess they're saying it's increased in COVID and/or LC. And in ME/CFS, this and other cytokine analyses are inconclusive... is what they're saying
Here's CCL5 in ME/CFS from a
2017 and a
2015 study. Notice in BOTH, CCL5 is actually
higher than controls, but then
lower in "severe" CFS.
View attachment 44381
View attachment 44382
View attachment 44383
This is part of the problem in finding consistency w/ the ME/CFS cytokine profiles vs healthy controls. It can fluctuate based on length and severity of illness.
My take is that if RANTES/CCL5 is indeed the source of the "cytokine storm", then the storm might settle down later in the illness. So after a certain period of time, you'll no longer show super high levels here. Which would make sense why Patterson is finding more consistency here, because no one's had Long Covid for a long enough period of time for their CCL5 to go down. If you'd had ME/CFS for 10+ yrs, CCL5 is likely to no longer be super high.
Also, in the Health Rising article
Has Bruce Patterson Cracked Long COVID?, it mentions how there's no consistency in cytokine levels in ME/CFS studies. This is really not true.
View attachment 44384
First off, that review only used Fukuda criteria, and thus were left w/ only 15 studies. I think Fukuda criteria is flawed, as there was a point where I wouldn't even qualify. I don't think the pain symptoms should be a requirement.
There are actually way more than 15 studies on this, and I'll show this below.
But second, I don't think they interpreted the data correctly.
For instance, here's their "summary" of what Montoya found in his 2017 study, they say out of all those cytokines studied, only TGF-β (increased) and Resistin (decreased) were different from controls...
View attachment 44385
But if you look at the actual study, there really are things that stick out and in fact seem significant. IL-2 for example, it's another one Patterson says is higher in Long Covid. And if you just believe the 15 study review, then you think IL-2 in ME/CFS is the same as controls.
But here's the actual data from Montoya's study for IL-2
View attachment 44386
To me, this seems very important. IL-2 (like many others) increases in ME/CFS severity (which I also link to length of illness). When you avg together the mild, moderate, and severe, these IL-2 levels still are higher than controls. And maybe these mild patients brought down the avg enough to where it no longer fell in the "significant" range.
But I think patterns like that are very important, and relevant.
Lastly, if you want to see the most comprehensive info on ME/CFS cytokines, see the
mepedia.org's page. You can actually seem some consistency in some, like high IFN-γ, IL-1, IL-2, etc. And there are links to a TON of different studies, not just from the 2000's.
View attachment 44387