UK, The Times, 23 Apr: 'Biological breakthrough offers fresh hope to ME sufferers

[filfla4]

 

[snowathlete]

My mum just sent me this too. Interesting.

 

[MeSci]

I've just been notified of this article but don't have access to the full text.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/article3746102.ece

I did a few internet searches and it looks as though it may be this research:

http://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/studies/ongoing/bioenergetics.html
I can't find anything relevant published by an author called Jones between 2012 and 2013 - maybe someone else can?

 

[SilverbladeTE]

*hammers another nail in the metaphorical and proffessional coffin of Wessely, White et al and the UK government!*

 

[lansbergen]

I can not find anything but from what is in the newspaper it looks good


Scientists provide fresh hope for ME sufferers
----------------------------------------------

Scientists have found compelling new evidence for an underlying
biological cause for the constant fatigue suffered by ME patients. The
study revealed abnormalities in the muscle cells people suffering from
ME which are likely to contribute to feelings of tiredness and the
inability to cope with sustained physical activity that many
experience. An analysis of muscle biopsies suggested that the cells
had undergone substantial changes making them less able to cope with
exertion. The finding shows that whatever the initial trigger for ME,
the condition leads to a cascade of physical changes right down to the
cellular level

 

[Sasha]

Great! Thanks for posting.

The start of the article (which allows comments) is available online but the full thing (presumably including the ability to comment) is behind a paywall:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/article3746102.ece

Any subcribers who can comment and mention the UK biomedical charities, or Maria's Rituximab fundraising drive? I think these kind of articles attract PWME who aren't even aware that these charities exist. I think they're a good recruiting ground.

 

[Allyson]

yes just got it on fb too thanks


at least it is in the paper

click on link and share for more publicity - papers count the clicks to judge popularity of topics


ME/CFS-Evolving Science

Article in The Times Science today:
Scientists provide fresh hope for ME sufferers

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/article3746102.ece

 

[Sasha]

[...]

filfla4, I hope you don't mind but I'm asking the moderators for a more specific title for this because I think it's important and a lot of UK people will be interested. I'm suggesting, 'UK, The Times, 23 Apr: 'Biological breakthrough offers fresh hope to ME sufferers'.

Thanks again for posting - this cheered me up no end!

 

[Allyson]

Great! Thanks for posting.

The start of the article (which allows comments) is available online but the full thing (presumably including the ability to comment) is behind a paywall:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/article3746102.ece

Any subcribers who can comment and mention the UK biomedical charities, or Maria's Rituximab fundraising drive? I think these kind of articles attract PWME who aren't even aware that these charities exist. I think they're a good recruiting ground.

y\

yes and on fb the news travels really quickly too Sasha
CHeers,
Ally

 

[filfla4]

Sure Sasha, good idea.

 

[Enid]

Aaaaah - are we getting somewhere now - it's been a awful long 12 years ! Thanks for posting filfla. Invest in ME London conference coming up in early May (recent researches) and Dr Gerada (RCGP) attending too. She is of course SW's wife, with hopefully some influence on the all in your minders I had to meet a few years ago.

 

[Esther12]

Newton has previously been using deconditioned control groups, so this could be interesting.

I should probably not comment until we've seen the final paper... but I'm always cynical about the claims of CFS research! I think that there have been past papers on similar findings too, although I can't remember the details.

 

[Undisclosed]

I have changed the title.

Great article.

 

[Desdinova]

Good news but I'll have too wait a while before I do my happy dance followed by my I told you so dance. Somewhere as we type Weasel - Whitewash and Co are busy planing a counter (debunking) offensive.

 

[snowathlete]

This *could* be a positive from the new collaborative. i.e. Newton having got involved with it, gets access to papers etc?

 

[alex3619]

This is semi-old news, I think, but what is new is that the media is picking up on it. That is a good sign. It might also be that I am misremembering as similar research was done on OI if I recall correctly, and the CFS study is really new. Either way, I like this trend of isolating tissue and then subjecting it to tests under stress in controlled conditions. Its paid off for OI, and FM, and now maybe CFS. Hard to study stuff is easier to study if its isolated, though you then lose the complexity of interaction that may make things happen differently in the body.

Now if they did cytokine testing and energy production testing under these conditions, would we get diagnostic biomarkers?

 

[alex3619]

Good news but I'll have too wait a while before I do my happy dance followed by my I told you so dance. Somewhere as we type Weasel - Whitewash and Co are busy planing a counter (debunking) offensive.

We saw the debunking/denial with H. pylori. 23 years after Barry Marshall showed H. pylori caused gastric ulcers, and more than a century after it was first suspected, White et. al. were discussing it as though psychosocial factors were really important, more so than the biological (2005, White's book whatever it was called - Biopsychosocial Medicine? I would have to look it up and I couldn't be bothered as I am about to go to bed). Yet now we see more and more of them embracing bioscience. Is it because they discovered that bPS actually has a B in it? Or is it that they are looking for biomarkers, as I have suggested a few times now, so that they can try to legitimize psychogenic views or not look just plain silly? Or has there really been a paradigm shift, or we are seeing the beginning of one? Take your pick, but I think if we want a paradigm shift we (and others including medical scientists and psychiatrists) are going to have to create one.

 

[Gijs]

This is semi-old news, I think, but what is new is that the media is picking up on it. That is a good sign. It might also be that I am misremembering as similar research was done on OI if I recall correctly, and the CFS study is really new. Either way, I like this trend of isolating tissue and then subjecting it to tests under stress in controlled conditions. Its paid off for OI, and FM, and now maybe CFS. Hard to study stuff is easier to study if its isolated, though you then lose the complexity of interaction that may make things happen differently in the body.

Now if they did cytokine testing and energy production testing under these conditions, would we get diagnostic biomarkers?

This is not semi-old news. This finding is verry important. For the first time Prof. Newton shows that high lactid is not due to deconditioning etc... but there is a celular problem. This is really a breakthrough.

 

[Gijs]

You can throw away the deconditioning theories if Dr. Newton’s new study comes out; she finds abnormalities in cellular metabolic functioning they cannot be explained away by deconditioning, behavioral problems, etc

 

[Bob]

The full article is on the ME Association's website:
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=15215

Essential info from the article:

In the study, scientists took muscle biopsies from ten patients and ten healthy but sedentary volunteers.
The muscle cells were grown into small pieces of muscle and then subjected to “exercise” in the form of electrical impulses.
The cells from ME patients produced on average 20 times as much acid when exercised, suggesting an underlying cause for the aching muscles that patients often experience as soon a they begin to exercise.
The cells also showed other abnormalities, such as reproducing more slowly.