Advanced technologies will be used to study critically important – yet understudied – biological factors in ME/CFS patients whose illness began before 2019. These include enterovirus tissue persistence and T cell brain & spinal cord immune activation Key points: The UCSF LIINC team will begin to study root cause drivers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) A group of very well-characterized ME/CFS patients will be followed over time, with many samples collected and stored in a biobank per patient Samples will be shared widely within the UCSF and PolyBio networks so that a range of infectious, immune, and genetic analyses can be performed Gut tissue will be collected from a subset of patients to search for enterovirus viral persistence and other abnormalities Advanced full-body imaging for T cell activation throughout the brain and spinal cord will also be conducted on a subset of patients LINK
15/ Specifically, they will use an imaging method called whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) with a special tracer, injected intravenously, that will map the location of activated T cells throughout the bodies and brains of the ME/CFS study participants https://twitter.com/user/status/1820830331542307275
