New Research Points to a Possible Mechanism Behind Post-Exertional Malaise

Dr. Alain Moreau, who directs OMF's Collaborative Research Center in Montreal, and his team have published new findings that may help explain why exertion triggers post-exertional malaise (PEM) in people with ME/CFS.

The research centers on irisin, a protein released by muscles during exercise, and its relationship with thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), a protein involved in immune response and wound healing. Comparing 92 people with ME/CFS to 44 sedentary healthy controls, the team found that people with ME/CFS had lower baseline irisin levels and a blunted response to physical exertion. They also found that elevated TSP-1 in the blood correlated with symptom severity, and that people with ME/CFS had a reduced ability to counteract TSP-1's effects.

Together, these findings point to a dysregulated irisin-TSP-1 relationship as a possible contributor to the metabolic dysfunction seen in ME/CFS, offering one explanation for why exertion that healthy bodies recover from easily can trigger a crash in people with this illness.

The findings are consistent with other research pointing to energy production problems in ME/CFS, and may help researchers identify metabolic subsets of patients, an important step toward more tailored treatment approaches down the road. This work is part of OMF's REMEDIAL project (Precision Medicine for ME Drug Discovery and Clinical Trials).

Want to go deeper? Join OMF's Journal Club on July 9 to hear the paper walked through directly. Details below.

Read the full paper in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.