Spotted from @Tom Kindlon on Twitter Circulating extracellular vesicles as potential biomarkers in CFS/ME: an exploratory pilot study A growing body of evidence suggests that extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a role in cell-to-cell communication, and are involved in both physiological and pathological processes. To date, no data on EV biology in CFS/ME are as yet available. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterise blood-derived EVs in CFS/ME.
I have no idea what this means in terms of understanding ME, and it's a tiny study, but the differences found in quantity and size of EV's is surprisingly different. Maybe a biomarker? Early days, of course.
Dr. Maureen Hanson states in this talk that she will be doing a study that examines extracellular vesicles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cESNQ9m0zSY
Thanks for that @Diwi9. Really interesting - they are going to look at EV's as part of their 2day CPET study of all sorts of things in blood and brains before and after exercise challenge.
Since I'd never heard of EV's, I did a quick google and see that they are being studied as markers in cancer, aging and other things. So perhaps it's more of a general "something wrong in the body" marker than an ME/CFS biomarker, but it still adds to the picture of the physical debility we have and might help measure if some intervention brings improvement or deterioration.
From a Cort blog https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2017/09/30/three-nih-funded-mecfs-research-centers-controversy/
https://www.s4me.info/threads/devel...ronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-cfs.965/#post-16364 A post by @strategist in November 2017 - Watanabe's team is on to EV's too. Watanabe et al. have received funding to conduct a 120 participants PET brain imaging study. The primary outcome: The level of brain positive inflammation dected by positron emission tomography (PET), [F18]DPA-714 Secondary outcomes: Oxidative stress level, Anti-oxidant activity, Metabolome, Proteome, Cytokines, Extracellular vesicles, Clinical test (CRP, cholesterol, etc.), CD antibody, Autonomic nervous system, Questionnaires for fatigue, depression and various symptoms, Arithmetic task, Sleep-wake cycle, Performance status for fatigue Details https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000033257