Exploring differences in protein cargo of extracellular vesicles from ME/CFS patient plasma compared to healthy controls, 2026, Rydland et al

[Nightsong]

Abstract:
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic and debilitating disease characterized by post-exertional malaise, fatigue and pain. Yet, its underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanoparticles carrying biological cargo and are involved in cell-cell communication. Plasma EVs reflect several disease states and may serve as minimally invasive biomarkers. In this exploratory study, we characterized the plasma EV profiles of ME/CFS patients (N = 49) and healthy controls (N = 50), by enriching for EVs by size-exclusion chromatography coupled to high-resolution quantitative proteomics. The ME/CFS patients had significantly higher concentrations of EVs than healthy controls. Among the 424 detected proteins included for analyses, 11 had different levels in EVs from ME/CFS patients. The ME/CFS associated EV proteins appear to mainly originate from erythroid cells, hepatocytes and plasma B cells, based on their tissue expression. Albeit differences in EV protein levels did not withstand correction for multiple testing, our study is the largest to date, thereby encouraging future investigations on the role of EV and its cargo in ME/CFS.

Link | PDF (Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports, June 2026, open access)

 

[Creekside]

Another "vs healthy controls" study. Of course sick people are different from healthy people. Which differences are due to the disease mechanism is the important question.

BTW, does anyone else have trouble with the Cloudflare "prove that you're human" check? I thought it was due to my slow wireless connection, but I've now switched to Starlink, and that hasn't made Cloudflare work any better. Faking human response seems like an easy task for an AI, so I question how effective the tests are.

 

[Kitty]

BTW, does anyone else have trouble with the Cloudflare "prove that you're human" check?

Yep, and I also get another version on a different site when looking up papers. Doesn't seem to hold me up for long, it's just a minor annoyance.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Sometimes it keeps repeating and never moves forward,

 

[Utsikt]

Rydland has been part of some of Fluge and Mella’s studies, and her first publication is from 2021 as far as I can tell. She got her PhD last year on EV in RA.

The ethical approval was for «immunology and genetics» in ME/CFS from 2015, running to 2030, and might have been the same that was used for F&M’s genetics studies.

So this might have been someone thinking that it’s worth a shot to throw some biobank samples through an existing EV pipeline to see if anything stands out.

 

[mariovitali]

Having in mind that EV ME/CFS proteins did not survive multiple test correction, some potentially interesting associations :

1) F13A1 and C3 are in the PrecisionLife identified list of genes
2) FGG appears in the candidate genes of Snyder Preprint
3) AMBP appears in s plot in the study by Beentjes et al





Interestingly, from the study :

The EV proteins increased in ME/CFS patients were liver-specific and expressed by hepatocytes. The EV proteins decreased in patients were mainly expressed by either erythroid cell-specific from the bone marrow or immune system derived by being expressed by plasma B cells.

 

[forestglip]

1) F13A1 and C3 are in the PrecisionLife identified list of genes
2) FGG appears in the candidate genes of Snyder Preprint

Why C3 and FGG? I don't see them mentioned in this study.

 

[mariovitali]

Why C3 and FGG? I don't see them mentioned in this study.

You are right, Thanks for catching this. It should be FGB not FGG which is not in the Snyder study. The C3 complement is also incorrect although there are findings in this study regarding complement activation.

I am doing crosschecks using AI, I do check what AI identifies but obviously I missed these in this case. Thanks again.

 

[mariovitali]

I revisited the output from AI and I wanted for the record to say that its output was correct. As I am not allowed to post here the actual text, C3 and FGG were mentioned by AI as close hits related to Complement activation and Fibrinogen from other studies. I was the one who interpreted this information incorrectly.

 

[MeSci]

BTW, does anyone else have trouble with the Cloudflare "prove that you're human" check? I thought it was due to my slow wireless connection, but I've now switched to Starlink, and that hasn't made Cloudflare work any better. Faking human response seems like an easy task for an AI, so I question how effective the tests are.

Not Cloudflare but other things that ask you to prove you're human - I had this (e.g. when I was trying to get into Facebook because someone there had mentioned me from my first job), which I think was due to my Adaware setting - if I switched it off the thing worked.

Just needed to remember to switch it back on afterwards.