ME: 'Invisible disease' is now easier to read

An extract from The Telegraph 18th March

A simple blood test may revolutionise the way we treat patients with ME, reports Bob Ward
British researchers are close to developing, for the first time, a blood test and potential drug treatments for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), following groundbreaking work on its genetic origins. ME/CFS affects about one in 200 people, and women sufferers outnumber men by six to one. It causes a constant feeling of extreme exhaustion and malaise for more than six months, along with sleep abnormalities, memory and concentration difficulties and a great deal of pain.
In its most extreme form, the disease leaves sufferers bed-ridden and can even be fatal.
But patients now have new hope, thanks to research published in the Journal of Clinical Pathology by Dr Jonathan Kerr of St George's University of London and his colleagues.
They have identified 88 genes that produce different levels of proteins and other molecules in ME/CFS sufferers compared with the rest of the population.
Dr Kerr's team carried out a complex analysis of the records of 55 patients and found that they could be divided into seven sub-types according to the specific gene combinations found in their white blood cells, and the severity of their symptoms.
The most acutely affected patients had 71 of the 88 gene abnormalities.
The results of this work should allow better understanding of the causes and development of the disease. Many of the genes are known to be affected when a person contracts a virus, a factor which is believed to trigger many cases of ME/CFS.
Importantly, the researchers also recognised that five of the 88 genes are targeted by drugs which are already used to treat other diseases.
The team is now investigating whether the faulty genes produce abnormal levels of proteins that can be detected as minute quantities of "biomarkers" in the blood of patients.
"If proven to be sensitive and specific indicators of the illness, the discovery of protein biomarkers could lead to the development of a diagnostic test for ME/CFS, which would revolutionise our approach to this disease," explains Dr Kerr.
He will present his results at a conference on ME/CFS biomedical research in Cambridge in May.