OMF: Uppsala researchers focus on diagnosis and intervention

[Ben H]

Hi guys,

#TripleTuesdayOMF Spotlight -
Uppsala ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center

The newest OMF-funded ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center is at Uppsala University in Sweden. Led by Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD, the Center is working in collaboration with the OMF-funded Collaborative Centers at Stanford University and Harvard-Affiliated Hospitals and is actively bringing in new European collaborators. The ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Uppsala University is focused on the targeted molecular diagnosis of ME/CFS with the goal of evidence-based strategies for interventions.

"One can start to tie biology, chemistry, neurophysiology and neurochemistry to these symptoms, which is a very important and an important introductory step before a potential treatment and possibly a cure,” said Dr. Bergquist.

Dr. Bergquist and his team are researching neuroinflammation through imaging and searching for biomarkers in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid). The Uppsala ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center is currently working on the targeted analysis of hormone levels in ME/CFS patients to determine dysregulation, the measure of trace elements and metals in ME/CFS patients that may be relevant to the disease severity in individuals, and the development of technologies to create a mechanism for more patients to be able to provide blood samples to participate in research even remotely.

Working in collaboration with Dr. Carmen Scheibenbogen (Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany), Dr. Bergquist has found that 70% of ME/CFS patients show autoantibodies to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors. Dr. Bergquist's research is following up on these early findings to determine the mechanism behind the production of these autoantibodies.

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B

 

[ljimbo423]

Dr. Bergquist and his team are researching neuroinflammation through imaging and searching for biomarkers in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid).

This makes 3 teams that I'm aware of studying neuroinflammation in ME/CFS. Jarred Younger, Ron Thompkins and Dr. Bergquist. I feel pretty strongly that neuroinflammation is causing most of my symptoms.

If any of the teams can find what is causing it, they might be able to trace that back to it's source. Finding the cause of ME/CFS!

 

[ebethc]

which symptoms are caused by "autoantibodies to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors"?

 

[Marylib]

which symptoms are caused by "autoantibodies to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors"?

Good question, @ebethc . Hopefully someone can tell us. All I can find is that muscarinic receptors relate to aceytlcholine, which is why some of us are better on mestinon or pyridostigmine.
Here is a link below that someone may be able to decode. It includes a literature review. It talks about molecular mimicry, so I guess the treatment goal involves shutting down the auto-antibodies. Which takes us back to autoimmunity, I guess. But does shutting down the auto-antibodies also take us back to rituximab? And back to the neuro-peptide research by immunologist Mary Fletcher?
I keep thinking we are looking at several diseases, all caught under the rubric of ME/CFS and so far as I know, the most consistent finding so far is a paucity of NK cells - again Mary Fletcher. I hope she will live to see a cure for what she has been studying all these years. She is not the only one, of course. But now our technology is better and hopefully these guys will figure out a way to get lots of samples from patients in remote locations - spinal fluid samples at some point, one would hope. Ouch!
https://paolomaccallini.com/2017/08/29/antibodies-to-adrenergic-and-muscarinic-receptors-in-mecfs/

 

[Remi]

which symptoms are caused by "autoantibodies to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors"?

POTS. https://www.celltrend.de/en/pots-cfs-me-crps.html

 

[wigglethemouse]

which symptoms are caused by "autoantibodies to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors"?

Wikipedia has a good article on muscarinic receptors and the table included shows some of the things they affect along with a list of agonsists and antagonists for each one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscarinic_acetylcholine_receptor#Difference_in_G_proteins

 

[Hubris]

https://paolomaccallini.com/2018/06/07/three-new-possible-autoepitopes-in-me-cfs/

This seems like a very good analysis on this kind of autoantibodies with some new insight

 

[wigglethemouse]

the measure of trace elements and metals in ME/CFS patients that may be relevant to the disease severity in individuals

Looks like OMF is funding Uppsula for this metals & trace elements work. An NIH grant had been submitted to NIH earlier in the year but maybe that was not successful - item1 in tweet below?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1138852026417201152

and the development of technologies to create a mechanism for more patients to be able to provide blood samples to participate in research even remotely.

This is really exciting. Ron has talked about other work his team had done on newborn blood spot testing for the state of California, and Les Simpson way back when found a way for patients to apply and fix a spot of blood to a slide and send remotely for analysis, Here is a PR quote from someone who took part in a Les Simpson study

I had Les Simpson's RBC test many years ago, maybe around 20. Back then we pricked our finger and put the blood between a glass slide which had a chemical we added to immediately use to fix it.
...
This interests me as my old Les Simpson result showed under a microscope (he provided an image) my RBC's were around 80%+ deformed in shape,

https://forums.phoenixrising.me/thr...ormability-paper-published.62374/post-1021421

This sounds very interesting. We've all been wondering why the Cell Trend antibodies are high, is it real, what does it mean.

Working in collaboration with Dr. Carmen Scheibenbogen (Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany), Dr. Bergquist has found that 70% of ME/CFS patients show autoantibodies to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors. Dr. Bergquist's research is following up on these early findings to determine the mechanism behind the production of these autoantibodies.

The link @Hubris provided details one way this could be analysed in a write up from @paolo

https://paolomaccallini.com/2018/06/07/three-new-possible-autoepitopes-in-me-cfs/

 

[ebethc]

Is celltrend the only company that offers testing for beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors?