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 The team from Columbia University in the United States identified in
their research distinct immune changes in patients with CFS --
markers they said pointed to distinct disease stages and would lead
to better diagnosis and treatment.
CFS, sometimes called myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME, is a
controversial and debilitating condition characterized by disabling
physical and mental fatigue, poor concentration and memory,
disturbed sleep and muscle and joint pain.
There is no cure and scientists don't know what causes it, but it
affects around 17 million people worldwide.
Many sufferers say they think their illness started after a viral
infection. But suggested links to a virus known as XMRV were shown
in a scientific paper in 2010 to have been based on contaminated
samples in a lab.
Recent research showing psychological treatments such as cognitive
behavior therapy can help CFS sufferers become more active have also
caused argument, with some patients complaining such results suggest
they are just lazy or suffering from a condition that is all in the
mind.
"NOT PSYCHOLOGICAL"
In the latest study, published in the Science Advances journal,
researchers found that specific immune patterns in patients who had
CFS for three years or less were not present in controls or in
patients who had the disease for more than three years.
Short duration patients had higher amounts of many different types
of immune molecules called cytokines, researchers found. The link
was unusually strong with a cytokine called interferon gamma that
has been linked to fatigue after viral infections.
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"We now have evidence confirming what millions of people with this
disease already know -- that ME/CFS isn't psychological," said Mady
Hornig, who co-led the study.
The results should help speed diagnosis and the discovery of new
treatments, she said.
However, other CFS specialists urged caution.
Michael Sharpe, a professor of psychological medicine, at Britain's
Oxford University said the finding was "potentially interesting" but
added: "This type of study (a case-control study) is notorious for
producing findings that other researchers subsequently fail to
replicate."
In a similar tone, Stephen Lawrie, an Edinburgh University
psychiatry expert, said Hornig's team may well have found different
immune profiles at different stages of the disease, but added this
could be "down to chance and hence a false positive signal".
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Gareth Jones)
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