[Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Who Have Already Visited Some Medical Institutions: The Points of Diagnosis and Treatment].

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a syndrome primarily presenting fatigue-based symptoms; however, the challenge is this syndrome has no diagnostic biomarkers. The diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS require highly specialized knowledge and skills. There is no definitive therapy for ME/CFS, including Chinese herbal medicine, vitamins, and/or L-carnitine. We recognised ME/CFS-like symptom in some patients infected COVID-19 . This directed our attention towards the research progress on the new research on the mechanisms and treatment of ME/CFS.

Diagnostic evaluation of 2', 5'-oligoadenylate synthetase activities and antibodies against Epstein-Barr virus and Coxiella burnetii in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome in Japan.

To investigate the association of viral infections with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), we assayed 2', 5'-oligoadenylate synthetase (2-5AS) activities in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from CFS patients in Japan. These patients were diagnosed in two hospitals, H1 and H2, located in different areas of the country. The activities were detected in 19 (86%) and 7 (32%) of each of the 22 patients in H1 and H2, respectively, while they were detected in only four (11%) out of the 38 healthy controls. IFN-alpha was similarly detected in a few CFS patients and healthy controls. We also assayed the antibody titers against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Coxiella burnetii in these patients. The EBV anti-EA-IgG antibodies were detected in two (9%) and seven (32%) of each of the 22 patients in H1 and H2, respectively. Anti-C. burnetii IgG antibodies were detected in six (27%) out of 22 patients in H1 but not in 22 patients in H2, while they were detected in one (11%) of the nine healthy controls. Some CFS patients may be associated with EBV or C. burnetii infection. There were some statistical correlations between the 2-5AS activities and antibody titers of EA-IgG (P < 0.05, Student's t-test) but not to the antibody titers of C. burnetii. The up-regulation of 2-5AS activities suggests immunological dysfunctions with some virus infections in the CFS patients. Our results indicate that 2-5AS activities are useful for a diagnostic marker of CFS and for exploring the complicated pathogenesis of CFS.

A polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region and frequency of migraine attacks.

BACKGROUND: The serotonergic system has been thought to play an important part in the pathophysiology of migraine. OBJECTIVE: To study an association between the polymorphism of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and migraine. Method.-We compared 151 patients with migraine with 190 healthy unrelated control subjects. The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was detected using polymerase chain reaction. Migraine patients were interviewed regarding attack frequency in the last 6 months. RESULTS: We denoted the products of the 484-base pair (bp) fragments as the short (s) and those of 528 bp as the long (l) allele according to the previously reported manner. Migraine patients with s/s genotype were compared with those with l/s and l/l genotype. We did not find significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of 5-HTTLPR between patients with migraine and control subjects. Among patients with migraine, those with s/s type had significantly more frequent attacks than those with the l/s or l/l type. CONCLUSIONS: This polymorphism does not appear to be involved in a genetic predisposition to the disease but may affect the frequency of attacks in patients with migraine. These findings may contribute to our understanding of factors that influence the clinical severity of migraine.