News in Brief - January 2025

This thread has a Science for ME 'News in Brief' post for each week in January 2025 by a team including @Trish, @Kalliope, @ahimsa and @SNT Gatchaman. Scroll down to see this week's news.

 

Week beginning 30th December 2024

Happy New Year to all our readers

News, articles and advocacy

ME/CFS Skeptic
Blogger ME/CFS Skeptic has written an excellent overview of the most interesting ME/CFS research studies of 2024. Studies discussed range across biomedical, the effects of exercise, effects of ME/CFS on people's lives, prevalence, Long Covid, and the disappointing NIH Intramural study.
Article | Thread

Dr Carmen Scheibenbogen The Pontifical Academy of Sciences organised a workshop November 2024 on SARS-CoV-2 Health Policies, Vaccination and Long COVID. Scheibenbogen gave an excellent talk on Long Covid (including ME/CFS). The talks have been uploaded on YouTube with Scheibenbogen's listed as nr. 4.
Talks l Thread

The Red Tree and M.E. In this blog Dr. Jo Greer, who is an educational psychologist and carer for a daughter with severe ME, tells of how the book "The Red Tree" by Shaun Tan has helped and provided support though a red leaf as a symbol of hope. She has asked scientists, researchers, clinicians and advocates involved with ME, Long Covid and other Infection Associated Chronic Condition to share a 'red leaf' and got 23 lovely responses. She writes: "My best hope is that these heartwarming messages about scientific progress and collaborative endeavour encourage you at some level, whatever (and maybe even despite) your circumstances, especially as we enter a new year."
Article 1 'The Red Tree and M.E. - One leaf at a time
Article 2 'We shall have spring again' - Messages of hope and solidarity for 2025
Thread

Dr David Putrino has been guest of the podcast Long COVID The Answers. In this first episode of two, he talked about the pathophysiology of Long Covid. The interview is available in both audio and video version as well as with a transcript.
Podcast l Thread

Science for ME petition Cochrane: Withdraw the harmful 2019 Exercise therapy for CFS review
Update: On Cochrane's excuses for scrapping the replacement review process they set up: Part 1
This part examines the first excuse given by Cochrane, a lack of resources to oversee the review, pointing out it was Cochrane that made the process overcomplicated, and much of the work has been done. "Do personal allegiances outweigh a commitment to good science? An alternative no-cost solution would have been to withdraw the Larun review - there are good grounds to do so. Why is Cochrane so determined to maintain the Larun et al review, in the face of such substantial costs to people with ME/CFS and to itself?"
Petition | Update | Thread
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Resources

USA - A reminder that the Bateman Horne Center has a list of Healthcare Professional Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses on their website that you can share with your doctor if they want to learn more about ME/CFS. Two of the courses are expiring soon (end of January).
Website | PDF | Thread
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Coming events

The IACFS/ME (International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) will hold its 17th Medical and Scientific Conference from October 22 - 25, 2025 at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. "Anyone interested in ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, related conditions (e.g. mass cell activation syndrome, dysautonomia), COVID-19, and sequelae of COVID-19 (e.g. long COVID) is invited to participate."
Announcement | Thread

Bateman Horne Center - Free Online Support Groups
Tuesday, January 14, 1:00 - 2:00 PM Mountain Time
Topic: Using Effective Coping Techniques for Living with Chronic Illness
Tuesday, January 21, 1:00 - 2:00 PM Mountain Time
Topic: Using Boundaries to Improve the Illness Experience
Advance registration required, see thread for times in your time zone.
Event Calendar | Thread
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Research

ME/CFS research

Journal of Medical Ethics
Re-visiting professional ethics in psychotherapy: reflections on the use of talking therapies as a supportive adjunct for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘medically unexplained symptoms’ — Joanne Hunt and Charlotte Blease
"We suggest that attempting to persuade patients of psychological or psychosomatic aetiology, or indeed of psychological or psychosomatic maintaining factors is not only inconsistent with the evidence base but also with the ethical requirement for professional competence."
Article | Thread

Thesis
Comparison Of Clinical And Pathophysiological Characteristics Of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome And Chronic Fatigue Associated With Post-Covid-19 Syndrome — Riabkova, Varvara Aleksandrovna
"Microcirculatory dysfunction in patients with chronic fatigue associated with PCS is characterized by a specific feature – reduced signal in laser doppler flowmetry during arterial occlusion compared to healthy controls, which may indicate microcirculatory stasis. In contrast, microcirculatory disturbances in ME/CFS patients correspond to the classic picture of endothelial dysfunction, which manifests as a decrease in peak flow during post-occlusive reactive hyperemia response."
PDF (Translated to English) | Thread

Long Covid research

Inflammation
Sustained Vascular Inflammatory Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein on Human Endothelial Cells — Gultom et al.
"coagulation dysregulation has been shown as a significant contributor to the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 infection as well as the pathology of PASC. We have demonstrated that the spike protein can directly increase the procoagulation state of ECs, consistent with the existing data. In addition, the transcriptomic analysis also showed a prolonged disruption of the regulation of the complement and coagulation cascades"
Article | Thread

Journal of Infection and Public Health
Proteomic analysis of post-COVID condition: Insights from plasma and pellet blood fractions — Seco-González et al.
"In the plasma fraction, symptomatic patients exhibited significant upregulation of proteins involved in coagulation, immune response, oxidative stress, and various metabolic processes" "In the pellet fraction, symptomatic patients showed upregulation of proteins related to immune response, coagulation, oxidative stress, and metabolic enzymes, with downregulation observed in components of the complement system, glycolysis enzymes, and cytoskeletal proteins."
Article | Thread

Preprint
Proteomic and metabolomic profiling of plasma uncovers immune responses in patients with Long COVID-19 — Wei et al.
"study results indicate significant protein dysregulation and metabolic abnormalities in the plasma of Long COVID patients, leading to coagulation dysfunction, impaired energy metabolism, and chronic immune dysregulation, which are more pronounced than in COVID-19 recovered patients"
Article | Thread

Nature Scientific Reports
Long COVID in transgender and gender nonbinary people in the United States — Wirtz et al.
"Long COVID was most common in transmasculine and nonbinary people assigned female sex at birth with no evidence of an association with reported hormone therapy."
Article | Thread

Nature Scientific Reports
Omics-based analysis of mitochondrial dysfunction and BBB integrity in post-COVID-19 sequelae — Dhariwal et al.
"By analysing the multi-transcriptome data, this work explores the neurological impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms behind BBB breakdown and neurological symptoms in COVID-19 patients."
Article | Thread

Master's Thesis
Bedside Monitoring of Mitochondrial Function in Post-COVID patients: A Feasibility Study — Behr
"The study implies that while mitoPO2 decreases significantly after exercise and mitoVO2 increases significantly after recovery, both do not differ significantly between PC patients and controls. However, the observed variance in mitoPO2 after exercise and recovery among PC patients suggests varying disease mechanisms related to oxygen supply."
Article | Thread

Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal
More than “Brain Fog”: Cognitive Dysfunction and the Role of Occupational Therapy in Long COVID — Skiffington, Helen and Breen, Ciara
"The impact of PEM/PESE on quality of life and functional performance should not be underestimated as the effect on daily life can be devastating."
Article | Thread

Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal
Answering Our Call to Care: Introduction to the Special Issue on Long Covid — Davenport
Guest editorial for a special issue of Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal dedicated to long COVID.
Article | Thread
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