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HHV-6 researcher Dr Bhupesh Prusty also finds "something in the serum" of ME/CFS patients

Snow Leopard

Hibernating
Messages
5,902
Location
South Australia
It seems like he says factors. Though I'm not sure about what 'transferable factors' are.

Note that he said "on a path".

The "path" most likely involves a method for filtration into different components (separated by size and potentially other chemical means), a means of testing whether the components have any noteworthy effects on healthy cells and then using various means of characterisation to discover what the active factor(s) are (which could also involve more filtration).

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.

Mitochondrial fragmentation should not be assumed to be a negative adaptation, see:
"Physiological Mitochondrial Fragmentation Is a Normal Cardiac Adaptation to Increased Energy Demand."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29233845

Aside, this is the context of Prusty's "sncRNA-U14" research:
"HHV-6 encoded small non-coding RNAs define an intermediate and early stage in viral reactivation"
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41525-018-0064-5
 
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Annikki

Senior Member
Messages
146
I would not like to say; I've never come across this apoptosis-inducing factor before.
It probably isn't the same thing, but I'm curious to the nature of the chemical found in the study. My guess is the chemical in mitochondrial-altering factor will be unique to ME and will serve bio-marker for the illness. Finding a new biomarker for ME would be excellent, both in terms of legitimizing the illness and enabling an easy test for ME that can be done in a doctor's office.
This will go a long way in preventing the typical diagnostic delays in new ME cases. Thanks again for sharing this, I think it's important.
 

Iknovate

Senior Member
Messages
129
Random thought.

All this serum talk made me think of my pregnancies where I would repeatedly have the thought, "my blood is poisoning me."