Ekua W. Brenu ,Kevin J. Ashton,Jana Batovska,Donald R. Staines,Sonya M. Marshall-Gradisnik Abstract Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to regulate many biological processes and their dysregulation has been associated with a variety of diseases including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). The recent discovery of stable and reproducible miRNA in plasma has raised the possibility that circulating miRNAs may serve as novel diagnostic markers. The objective of this study was to determine the role of plasma miRNA in CFS/ME. Results Using Illumina high-throughput sequencing we identified 19 miRNAs that were differentially expressed in the plasma of CFS/ME patients in comparison to non-fatigued controls. Following RT-qPCR analysis, we were able to confirm the significant up-regulation of three miRNAs (hsa-miR-127-3p, hsa-miR-142-5p and hsa-miR-143-3p) in the CFS/ME patients. Conclusion Our study is the first to identify circulating miRNAs from CFS/ME patients and also to confirm three differentially expressed circulating miRNAs in CFS/ME patients, providing a basis for further study to find useful CFS/ME biomarkers. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25238588/
Fukuda criteria; six CFS/ME and six healthy controls (chosen from 20 CFS/ME and 20 controls on the basis of having produced the most small rna after plasma processing); no adjustment for false discovery rate So, it's a really small sample, as is so often the way with the NCNED work. Also the six CFS/ME participants had differences in blood cell percentages (higher % of granulocytes; lower percentage of lymphocytes) compared to the the 20 ME/CFS sample and to the 6 controls - so they may well not be representative of ME/CFS participants.
It seems the ME/CFS participants may be doubly unpresentative of pwME given the choice to use Fukuda criteria, and the differences in blood cell percentages.