Exploring the Diagnostic Potential of Immune Biomarker Co-expression in Gulf War Illness

M

Milo

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Exploring the Diagnostic Potential of Immune Biomarker Co-expression in Gulf War Illness

Link to paper here

* Patients with ME are control in this study

Authors:
  • Gordon Broderick, Mary Ann Fletcher, Michael Gallagher, Zachary Barnes, Suzanne D. Vernon, Nancy G. Klimas
Abstract

Complex disorders like Gulf War illness (GWI) often defy diagnosis on the basis of a single biomarker and may only be distinguishable by considering the co-expression of multiple markers measured in response to a challenge.

We demonstrate the practical application of such an approach using an example where blood was collected from 26 GWI, 13 healthy control subjects, and 9 unhealthy controls with chronic fatigue at three points during a graded exercise challenge.

A 3-way multivariate projection model based on 12 markers of endocrine and immune function was constructed using a training set of n = 10 GWI and n = 11 healthy controls.

These groups were separated almost completely on the basis of two co-expression patterns. In a separate test set these same features allowed for discrimination of new GWI subjects (n = 16) from unhealthy (n = 9) and healthy control subjects with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 90%.
 
It's pretty impossible to understand just what they found from this brief abstract, I think.

I do wish they wouldn't use the phrase 'unhealthy subjects with chronic fatigue'. Do they mean CFS, or ME/CFS, or the symptom chronic fatigue?

Given that the researchers include Nancy Klimas who is researching both GWI and ME/CFS, and has said in the past that she has found biological differences in tests between GWI and ME/CFS, and both differ from healthy controls, this seems to be saying the same thing.

I wonder whether the headlining of GWI in this study, and only mentioning CF as one of the control groups is because the funding was for a GWI study.

I think this is a replication study to see whether their findings from one small study provide reliable diagnostic markers for a second small group.
 
p.118
"In this respect it was interesting to note that subjects with CFS,
another fatiguing illness, did not manifest this pattern of cytokine
co-expression to the same extent as GWI subjects. Indeed
only two of the nine CFS controls were assigned to the GWI
group by the classification model. Consequently even though
metabolic repercussions may be similar, the basic mechanisms
driving neuroendocrine-immune dysfunction might be quite
different in GWI and these illnesses may constitute very distinct
regulatory regimes [47]."
 
Lisa108 said:
p.118
"In this respect it was interesting to note that subjects with CFS,
another fatiguing illness, did not manifest this pattern of cytokine
co-expression to the same extent as GWI subjects. Indeed
only two of the nine CFS controls were assigned to the GWI
group by the classification model. Consequently even though
metabolic repercussions may be similar, the basic mechanisms
driving neuroendocrine-immune dysfunction might be quite
different in GWI and these illnesses may constitute very distinct
regulatory regimes [47]."
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. That's encouraging.
 
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