Dr. Maureen Hanson, a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University and member of Solve’s Research Advisory Council, specializes in understanding the molecular nature of ME/CFS. ME/CFS has affected Dr. Hanson’s own family, and she is an important ME/CFS researcher and strong patient advocate. Recently, Dr. Hanson’s team published a study in Clinical and Translational Medicine comparing how ME/CFS and exercise relate to extracellular vesicles in men.
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The team found levels of many extracellular vesicle proteins from healthy men differed from those from men with ME/CFS. Even before exercise, some of these differences suggested that men with ME/CFS have problems with blood clotting; immune functions (especially with neutrophils, important for early immunological defenses, and with complement proteins, important for targeting infectious agents); making and breaking down proteins; metabolism; and oxidative stress. The differences in complement proteins got worse soon after exercise, possibly exacerbating post-exertional malaise. Other differences appearing soon after exercise suggested that the men with ME/CFS were improperly recovering from exercise regarding how their mitochondria processed energy and how they regulated coagulation (blood clotting).
Severity of post-exertional malaise (PEM) correlated with differences in extracellular vesicle proteins related to the endoplasmic reticulum stress response and to protein folding. In other words, the men in whom levels of these extracellular vesicle proteins changed the most also had the most severe post-exertional malaise. And severity of unrefreshing sleep correlated with differences in extracellular vesicle proteins related to cell signaling, metabolism, and protein folding. These results suggested that men with ME/CFS may experience symptoms of post-exertional malaise and unrefreshing sleep after exercise because of problems with endoplasmic reticulum stress response, with protein folding, and with using energy to recover from physical stress.
