What these illnesses are
Myth 1: ME/CFS and Long-COVID are made up (hypochondria)
Fact 1
ME/CFS and Long-COVID are very real illnesses and not psychosomatic (“in your head”).
While there is not yet one, single, easy-to-measure and consistent biomarker to diagnose these illnesses, the symptoms of ME/CFS and Long-COVID are based on measurable, underlying biological abnormalities.
The biological abnormalities seen in people with ME/CFS or long-COVID affect multiple body systems, such as:
-
the immune system
-
the nervous system
-
the endocrine system
-
the metabolic system.
These underlying abnormalities may impair the body’s ability to:
-
produce and use energy
-
regulate blood flow and oxygen delivery
-
respond to stressors.
…leading to the wide range of experienced symptoms.
Ongoing work to validate biomarkers include:
The Special Issue “Biomarkers in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)” by the journal Biomolecules:
-
collecting original research and reviews on any aspect of biomarker identification or characterization for ME/CFS.
The ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University:
-
identifying molecular signatures of ME/CFS using advanced technologies such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and single-cell analysis.
In News – medical, life sciences, a discussion of a study:
-
showing that four newly discovered biomarkers for Long-COVID boost prediction accuracy to 78.5%.
The Nature article
“Distinguishing features of long COVID identified through immune profiling”:
-
uses immune phenotyping and machine learning to identify biological features associated with long-COVID.
An article in Molecular Medicine:
-
describes a study that used targeted proteomics and machine learning to identify novel blood biomarkers of long-COVID.
Biomarker: measurable indicator of a biological state or condition, such as a blood test, a gene expression, or an imaging scan.
Biomarkers can help diagnose a disease, monitor its progression, or evaluate its response to treatment.