New Polybio project for ME/CFS

[Osaca]

A new Polybio project has been funded by ME Research UK titled "Identifying viruses in tissue and nerve samples from ME/CFS patients".

The research team led by Dr Proal includes Dr Nikos Kyrpides from Berkeley National Laboratory and Dr Michael VanElzakker from Massachusetts General Hospital. The team specialises in using new computer-based technologies to identify viruses in human tissue samples. These technologies are ‘unbiased’, meaning they can identify all genetic material in a sample, including novel viruses that earlier techniques might have missed.

Identified viruses are entered into the IMG/VR database – the world’s largest and most diverse viral database – which was also created by members of the team.

For more information see here: https://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/proal-059/ and here: www.twitter.com/MEResearchUK/status/1668530281223954433.

Personally, I'm always a bit sceptical when it comes to "only" doing tissue sample to "only" to look for viruses, since it seems equivalent to looking for a needle in a haystack, but nonetheless it's very good news and hopefully more projects can follow.

Polybio is possibly the leading research organisation for Long-Covid research and collaborates with researchers such as the UCSF team (Tim Henrich, Michael Peluso, Steven Deeks), Akiko Iwasaki, Resia Pretorius, Michael van Elzakker and they have many intriguing biomedical research projects, often with a focus on viral persistence, listed on their homepage.

Polybio received a multimillion dollar fund by Vitaly Buterins foundation Balvi last year and one can hope that some follow up projects will also be funded by him.

 

[Hip]

For more information see here: https://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/proal-059/

Quoting that link:

Dr Proal and her team are using new computer-based technologies to search for viruses in tissue and nerve samples from people with ME/CFS. The viruses most associated with ME/CFS – especially polio-type enteroviruses and herpesviruses – can infect nerves and ‘hide’ in tissue, and may therefore not clear from the body after the initial infection. The team plans to clarify if this viral activity contributes to the disease process in ME/CFS, and to identify which specific viral species are most involved. This may also help identify targeted treatments for the disease.

Good to see that Polybio are taking enteroviruses into consideration, as well as herpesviruses. I believe in Dr Michael VanElzakker's vagus nerve tissue study, they only looked for herpesviruses.

 

[Consul]

Elzakker was doing a neuroinflammation scan study in mecfs but suddenly put in on hold and never heard a word about it after. He said he would put out something on long covid instead before summer, but nothing happened. That was last summer btw.

 

[Osaca]

Elzakker was doing a neuroinflammation scan study in mecfs but suddenly put in on hold and never heard a word about it after. He said he would put out something on long covid instead before summer, but nothing happened. That was last summer btw.

He's also currently part of 2 Polybio projects (without including this new one) https://polybio.org/projects/5272/ and https://polybio.org/projects/case-study-5/. Perhaps he's just a bit too busy (or his collaborators are) to write down his results at the moment. Unfortunately, it's the norm to underestimate how long a task will end up taking.

Perhaps Amy Proal will do an interview with him soon, as she's done with many of the other collaborators, let's hope we'll know more than.