Hip
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Four independent ME/CFS research groups have now found "something in the serum" of ME/CFS patients which adversely affects the energy metabolism of healthy cells in vitro, when those cells are exposed a drop of ME/CFS patients' blood serum.
(1) Fluge and Mella in 2016 showed that when myoblast cells (young muscle cells) from healthy people were exposed to the serum of ME/CFS patients, the cells developed energy metabolism abnormalities. That suggests that there is "something in the serum" which is pernicious.
(2) Prof Ron Davis also found evidence that "something in the serum" is affecting ME/CFS patients cells (see this thread).
(3) Dr Karl Morten of the Morten ME/CFS Research Group Oxford found something in ME/CFS patients' blood serum which affected the cells' ability to absorb oxygen (see this article).
(4) Most recently, Dr Bhupesh Prusty has found "something in the serum" in ME/CFS patients which affects the mitochondria of healthy cells.
EDIT 2024: Another group has found "something in the serum":
(5) Scientists in Spain added ME/CFS patient serum to muscle tissues in vitro, and found this resulted in an upregulation of glycolytic enzymes, especially of PDK4. Paper here. This is similar to Fluge and Mella's finding of an upregulation of PDK1, PDK2 and PDK4 in their above paper.
Dr Prusty's has previously found that HHV-6 reactivation in cells changes mitochondrial structure and function. But intriguingly, Prusty's research suggests this not only happens in HHV-6-infected cells, but even in healthy cells by some unknown factor that alters the mitochondria in uninfected healthy cells as well (some info here).
Prusty's latest finding is that this mitochondrial-altering factor transmits via the blood serum, because when he added ME/CFS patients' serum to healthy cells, their mitochondria began to break up.
And when he added to healthy cells the supernatant (liquid) taken from a HHV-6 infection in cell culture, this also caused the same changes in the mitochondria.
And then removing removing ME/CFS patients’ serum from the cells caused the mitochondria to return to a healthy state again.
Prusty is now attempting to isolate this mitochondrial inhibiting factor from the serum. He is using the exosomes that Maureen Hanson is examining in her NIH research center.
Some articles about Dr Prusty's work:
SMCI 2016 RAMSAY TEAM 5 RESEARCH UPDATE
HHV-6 MEDIATED MITOCHONDRIAL MODULATION AND ITS ASSOCIATION TO ME/CFS
(1) Fluge and Mella in 2016 showed that when myoblast cells (young muscle cells) from healthy people were exposed to the serum of ME/CFS patients, the cells developed energy metabolism abnormalities. That suggests that there is "something in the serum" which is pernicious.
(2) Prof Ron Davis also found evidence that "something in the serum" is affecting ME/CFS patients cells (see this thread).
(3) Dr Karl Morten of the Morten ME/CFS Research Group Oxford found something in ME/CFS patients' blood serum which affected the cells' ability to absorb oxygen (see this article).
(4) Most recently, Dr Bhupesh Prusty has found "something in the serum" in ME/CFS patients which affects the mitochondria of healthy cells.
EDIT 2024: Another group has found "something in the serum":
(5) Scientists in Spain added ME/CFS patient serum to muscle tissues in vitro, and found this resulted in an upregulation of glycolytic enzymes, especially of PDK4. Paper here. This is similar to Fluge and Mella's finding of an upregulation of PDK1, PDK2 and PDK4 in their above paper.
Dr Prusty's has previously found that HHV-6 reactivation in cells changes mitochondrial structure and function. But intriguingly, Prusty's research suggests this not only happens in HHV-6-infected cells, but even in healthy cells by some unknown factor that alters the mitochondria in uninfected healthy cells as well (some info here).
Prusty's latest finding is that this mitochondrial-altering factor transmits via the blood serum, because when he added ME/CFS patients' serum to healthy cells, their mitochondria began to break up.
And when he added to healthy cells the supernatant (liquid) taken from a HHV-6 infection in cell culture, this also caused the same changes in the mitochondria.
And then removing removing ME/CFS patients’ serum from the cells caused the mitochondria to return to a healthy state again.
Prusty is now attempting to isolate this mitochondrial inhibiting factor from the serum. He is using the exosomes that Maureen Hanson is examining in her NIH research center.
Some articles about Dr Prusty's work:
SMCI 2016 RAMSAY TEAM 5 RESEARCH UPDATE
HHV-6 MEDIATED MITOCHONDRIAL MODULATION AND ITS ASSOCIATION TO ME/CFS
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