UK: News from ME Research UK

Discussion in 'News from organisations' started by Andy, May 10, 2021.

  1. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Last edited: Oct 4, 2023
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  2. Ash

    Ash Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I feel in my body like this is happening.
     
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  3. duncan

    duncan Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    If I had my druthers I'd throw one or two other chronic conditions into the mix of that study just posted by @Dolphin , e.g. MS and leprosy.

    ETA, Sorry, it was posted by @Andy
     
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  4. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Jo Cambridge has been working on this screening method for some time. It is a bit like a DecodeME for antibodies - looking across a very wide range then trying to make sure a signal is meaningful.

    Unfortunately Jo has been seriously unwell and is only just now getting through that.
     
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  5. FMMM1

    FMMM1 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Very interesting. The rituximab study [B-cell auto-antibodies] was relatively small & the [Fluge & Mella] Daratumumab [plasma cell auto-antibodies] study is very small (6 participants). Would a negative results for Daratumumab e.g. indicate that autoantibodies are not a common
    disease mechanism? Still, identifying a rare autoimmune case might give a clue to a more common [non-autoimmune] mechanism. So many questions ---

    Good to hear Jo's health has improved.
     
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  6. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    ME Research UK

    ·
    ME Research UK is delighted to announce that we have awarded funding to Prof. Simon Carding at the Quadram Institute for a new project investigating the role of gut viruses in ME/CFS.

    The researchers plan a comprehensive analysis of the gut virome in people with ME/CFS, to identify signature viruses that might be involved in the development of the disease, and could represent a new biomarker. They will also look at whether they respond to microbiota transplantation therapy.

    Read more: https://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/carding-060
    More detailed description:
    https://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/carding-060-info

     
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  7. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  8. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  9. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    ME Research UK is delighted to announce that we have awarded funding to Dr Zack Shan at the University of the Sunshine Coast for a new study using MRI to assess brain neuroinflammation and the lymphatic system in ME/CFS.

    Dr Shan and his colleagues are conducting the world’s first controlled study directly assessing neuroinflammation in the brains of people with ME/CFS. They plan to investigate the characteristics of brain immune cells and the lymphatic network, in order to understand more about the role of neuroinflammation in ME/CFS and whether this might help in the development of evidence-based treatments.

    Read more: https://meres.uk/shan062
    More detailed description: https://meres.uk/shan062info

     
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  10. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  11. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    I'm sorry to see MERUK posting an article that gives the same credibility to serious scientific studies and a the quack Perrin technique based on a single study with no control group, unblinded with subjective outcomes done on pwLC who were early enough in their post Covid symptoms to be likely to recover anyway.
     
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  12. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    ME Research UK is delighted to announce that we have awarded funding to Dr Jo Nijs at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, for new PhD-level research exploring the links between mitochondrial function and the autonomic nervous system in ME/CFS.

    The team includes Dr Andrea Polli, Dr Jolien Hendrix, and PhD student Jente Van Campenhout, who will compare mitochondrial function between groups of ME/CFS patients divided according to the autonomic symptoms they experience. As well as understanding the disease process better, subgrouping patients could help improve diagnosis and selecting treatments. @paininmotion

    Read more: https://bit.ly/nijs004
    More detailed description: https://bit.ly/nijs004info
     
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  13. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  14. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

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    I think there's a lot to like about this study. It's worth clicking through to the fuller explanation, which is still just a summary.

    One thing is this - the Fred and Joan Davies Bequest. I haven't heard of it, but it is really lovely that people cared enough to donate money in a bequest.
    Also that MERUK description at the link is clear and you can choose to listen to it rather than read it.

    At first I was worried that they would classify people on the basis of whether they had various autonomic (orthostatic, gastrointestinal) symptoms at one point in time. Symptoms change from day to day, so I thought the research might just get confounded by short term variation. But, they are tracking measures across two visits, before and after exercise and a standing test.

    So perhaps they can identify some real differences. 75 people is a good sized study. And they are tracking PEM, so the study might tell us something about that. I like that they have a hypothesis about methyltransferase activity and will look for that.

    I didn't see what sampling they would do, I assume it's a blood sample, so then what cells would they be looking at and are they active? Or maybe it's a muscle biopsy? That would be my main concern with this study - are they sampling the right cells, and are the procedures for measuring mitochondrial function good enough (e.g. measuring quickly enough after sample collection).

    I also like that Jente fronted up to give a description of her project, and in English too, thank you. It would be great if she visited the forum, we have some other relatively young researchers investigating mitochondrial function already here.
     
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  15. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  16. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  17. Ash

    Ash Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    So interesting to look at the biological findings of differences the between men and women here. I was really interested by Decode MEs results, when they returned the preliminary results showing how the symptom patterns taken from averages diverged so much.

    I often wonder too about trans people with ME, of whom there must be a few out there, who’ve taken hormones in either direction, and whether current hormone levels are influencing the progression or remission of ME or not really. Are hormones an ongoing risk or protective factor for the course of disease once you have it, or is it just a matter of certain hormone levels putting you at risk at certain points. My guess is hormones are a significant vulnerability. But perhaps not the most important factor. Otherwise I guess even fewer men would get sick than do. I’m betting hormones can be protective but only to a certain extent.

    The CFS questionnaire for testing five mens attitudes is a disappointment. But it is a CFS study so to be expected I guess.
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2023
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  18. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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  19. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    ME Research UK

    ME Research UK is delighted to announce that we have awarded funding to Dr Douglas Barrett at Leicester University for new PhD-level research exploring visual problems in ME/CFS.

    The team includes Dr Claire Hutchinson, Dr David Souto and PhD student Anosha Atlaf, who will conduct various tests of visual sensitivity, selective attention and target detection in ME/CFS patients and healthy control subjects, and measure related markers of behaviour, eye movement and nerve activity. As well as understanding more about the impact of ME/CFS on visual function, the results may provide diagnostic markers of the disease.

    Read more: https://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/barrett-phd005

    Read a more detailed description: https://www.meresearch.org.uk/research/barrett-phd005-info

     
  20. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    ME Research UK and Daphne Jackson Trust launch ME/CFS Fellowship

    Applications are invited for a three-year Daphne Jackson Fellowship co-sponsored by ME Research UK. The Fellowship is open to talented researchers with a PhD – likely in a life science e.g. biomedical sciences, whole organismal biology, molecular genetics, infection and microbiology, structural biology, biological chemistry, who wish to return to research within a UK university or research institution after a career break of two or more years.

    https://www.meresearch.org.uk/me-research-uk-and-daphne-jackson-trust-launch-me-cfs-fellowship/

    Chris Ponting on Twitter writes
    "I'd be delighted to sponsor a @MEResearchUK and @DaphneJacksonTr #MEcfs Fellowship in @EdinburghUni (closing data 4 March 2024). Please get in touch"

     
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