Announcing OMF's First ME/CFS Clinical Trial!

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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia Leading Research. Delivering Hope.Open Medicine Foundation® Canada

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Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia and Long COVID.

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#TripleTuesdayOMFCA Spotlight – iCPET Study

Proteomic and Metabolic Plasma iCPET Studies

By Ronald G.Tompkins, MD, ScD

We have received an anonymous grant of $350,000 designated for the “Proteomic and Metabolomic Plasma iCPET Studies” within the OMFCA-funded Harvard ME / CFS Collaboration at the Harvard-Affiliated Hospitals. Dr. David Systrom and his colleagues at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a valuable biorepository of blood samples from more than 300 people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) – each with a well-documented patient history. In some of these patients, Dr. Systrom has identified a form of heart failure described as Preload Heart Failure (PLF), which presents in two forms: high-flow and low-flow. Many of these patients suffer from dysautonomia as well as the diagnosis of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a syndrome that involves both the cardiopulmonary and the peripheral vascular systems. The dysregulations of these systems can cause: dizziness, fatigue, inability to exercise, lightheadedness, fainting, fast heart rate, nausea, anxiety, and blurred vision. The cause of the dysregulation is unknown, but it is likely that studying the interaction of these systems will lead to a clearer understanding of its origin.

The Harvard ME / CFS Collaboration’s investigators will evaluate ME / CFS patient’s blood samples that were extracted at three separate time-points: before exercise, at peak exercise, and one-hour after exercise. These studies will evaluate two separate blood compartments at these time points: the blood pumped from the heart and the blood returned to the heart. Therefore, six blood samples will be studied from each participant. Open Medicine Foundation (OMF) has raised funds for a cohort of the high-flow PLF ME / CFS patients to be compared to healthy volunteers.

Pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) is one possible reason for unexplained fatigue and dyspnea, recent studies in the area of PAH offer a guideline for where to begin our in-depth analysis on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS). In these comparable studies, many differences were observed in the blood (proteins, peptides, phospho-proteins, and metabolites). These new findings in PAH are in areas of biology that are also of great interest to the ME / CFS research community.

It is with hope that this newly funded study, performed specifically in the ME / CFS patient population, will lead to a better understanding of the underlying biology behind ME / CFS and PLF, while simultaneously identifying potential drug targets for future therapies.

This recent funding will begin to enable extensive research and scientific exploration into this very important biorepository for these Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) patients undergoing cardiopulmonary exercise testing. OMFCA is committed to continuing to raise funds to conduct these types of analyses on additional and similar ME / CFS patient groups using this invaluable resource at hand.

Learn more about the iCPET Study.

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Microvesicles and viral sequencing
Microvesicles are a type of extracellular vesicle that is released from the cell membrane. Vesicles are small, fluid-filled sacs or vacuoles within the body. Sequencing is a technique used to determine the exact sequence of bases (A, C, G, and T) in a DNA (or viral) molecule.
NMR Metabolomics
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is an instrument/tool used to perform metabolic studies, metabolic profiling, and metabolomics in biofluids and tissues for more than 40 years using magnetic fields. There is a very close connection between metabolic measurements and NMR. This connection has flourished because of NMR’s many unique strengths for characterizing complex mixtures’ chemical composition.
Proteomics
The large-scale study of proteins, which are large, complex molecules that are required for structure, function, and regulation of the human body's tissues and organs.
Immune cell profiling
The immune system has many important regulatory roles in disease development and progression. Given the emergence of effective immune therapies, reliable predictors of response are needed. Immune cell profiling determines response by evaluating immune cell populations from treated and untreated samples. For our purposes, we will evaluate the white blood cell response to the viral infection using a process called “Cytof.”
Leukocyte Genomics
A leukocyte is a colorless cell circulating in the blood and body fluids and is involved in counteracting foreign substances and disease. A genome is all genetic material of an organism. Genomics is a biology field focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. Therefore, leukocyte genomics is the study of all genetic material of leukocytes.
Metabolomics
Metabolomics is a way to study metabolism – that is, through measuring amounts of the metabolites (small molecules) produced by our bodies as we convert food into energy and other molecules that our cells need to survive. Metabolomics technology is ‘large-scale,’ meaning that several thousand metabolites can be measured from a single sample of e.g., blood or urine.
Micro RNA
Cells use Micro RNA to control whether a particular gene is making too much, too little or the normal amount of its protein at a particular time.
Autoantibodies
Antibodies that react with self-molecules and that occur in healthy individuals and are referred to as natural antibodies or autoantibodies.
Extracellular DNA for viral reactivation and Mitochondrial DNA
exDNA (extracellular DNA), exDNA is often secreted actively and is used to perform several tasks, thereby offering an attractive target or tool for biotechnological, medical, environmental, and general microbiological applications. Viruses are intracellular parasites that rely to a significant extent on the host cell for replication. Viral reactivation occurs when an active replication of the viral genome results in a lytic (degradation of the cell) infection characterized by the release of new progeny (descendant) virus particles.