What are the most interesting ME/CFS-studies of 2024?

Thanks @ME/CFS Skeptic I find it hard to keep up with the research and your balanced summaries are an excellent resource.

Although it hasn’t started yet, and may not happen, I wondered if you might mention SequenceME, the announcement of which was one of the more positive developments in 2024.

I also wondered if you might consider adding links to the S4ME threads of each of the studies you summarise.
 
I'm sure the next blog is already being written. To me it looks like for ME/CFS research, 2025 was the year of "genes" which hopefully gives some promising leads for future years to come. At the same I'm reminded by the topics and trends whose death seems to have come along in 2025 (and earlier):
  • The microclots hype is seems to now be completely over. In Polybio's initial funding round a few years ago they funded 5 microclot projects. None of those have published any results to date. Apart from their lumbronkinase trial they didn't fund any microclot projects anymore in their new funding round. There was another study by Iwasaki at Yale and Putrino at Mt. Sinai. Iwasaki said in 2022 that results should be published shortly. Neither of those studies published any results to date. The only other microclot study by Caroline Dalton in 2024 left a very unfavourable view on the work that had been conducted by others up until then. Rob Wüsts newest ME/CFS publication didn't mention amyloid staining anymore, contrary to his earlier work and similarly apheresis, triple therapy and other regimens as treatment have gone out of trend and those that claimed to soon be publishing studies with their therapy never did so.
  • The substance BC007 has undergone 2 independent studies both with negative results and seems a dead end. Some individuals are not ready to give up on it yet, but it's hard to see for me to see how these things could ever lead anywhere useful.
  • The "Long-Covid-biomarker" trend seems to be over. In the first few years every other week a study come out claiming to have found some compositiory biomarker x,y,z for Long-Covid. That trend seems to be over.
  • "Viral persistence in Long-Covid" might not have died yet and might never, but I don't recall any findings supporting it in 2025 and there was no replication or building on previous claims in 2025. After trials with antivirials have only ever yielded negative results some formely very "pro viral persistence researchers" have hinted that it might be time to start looking elsewhere.
 
EndME said:
The "Long-Covid-biomarker" trend seems to be over. In the first few years every other week a study come out claiming to have found some compositiory biomarker x,y,z for Long-Covid. That trend seems to be over.
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If only. PolyBio (may their funding dry up) have project Viper.

German researchers aren't only focused on a single biomarker, but multiple ones so they can define LC and ME/CFS subgroups.
 
EndME said:
I'm sure the next blog is already being written.
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No, still re-reading some studies from this year. Thanks.

Agree with the 'year of the gene'. Think this has allowed us to make a significant step forward in understanding ME/CFS, although it may still be a long road ahead. Feels a bit like laying the edge pieces of a big puzzle. Perhaps not a real breakthrough, but it's getting a bit clearer what the puzzle will eventually show.
EndME said:
  • The microclots hype is seems to now be completely over. In Polybio's initial funding round a few years ago they funded 5 microclot projects. None of those have published any results to date. Apart from their lumbronkinase trial they didn't fund any microclot projects anymore in their new funding round. There was another study by Iwasaki at Yale and Putrino at Mt. Sinai. Iwasaki said in 2022 that results should be published shortly. Neither of those studies published any results to date. The only other microclot study by Caroline Dalton in 2024 left a very unfavourable view on the work that had been conducted by others up until then. Rob Wüsts newest ME/CFS publication didn't mention amyloid staining anymore, contrary to his earlier work and similarly apheresis, triple therapy and other regimens as treatment have gone out of trend and those that claimed to soon be publishing studies with their therapy never did so.
  • The substance BC007 has undergone 2 independent studies both with negative results and seems a dead end. Some individuals are not ready to give up on it yet, but it's hard to see for me to see how these things could ever lead anywhere useful.
  • The "Long-Covid-biomarker" trend seems to be over. In the first few years every other week a study come out claiming to have found some compositiory biomarker x,y,z for Long-Covid. That trend seems to be over.
  • "Viral persistence in Long-Covid" might not have died yet and might never, but I don't recall any findings supporting it in 2025 and there was no replication or building on previous claims in 2025. After trials with antivirials have only ever yielded negative results some formely very "pro viral persistence researchers" have hinted that it might be time to start looking elsewhere.
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This is a really interesting overview. I won't write much about this because it's more about Long Covid than ME/CFS, but I'm glad you did.

Seems like a good idea to check which microclot studies were funded and should have come out by now. Perhaps some are reluctant to publish null results.

Regarding BC007, I think the Erlangen study is being used to argue that the treatment is effective.
Safety, tolerability and clinical effects of rovunaptabin, also known as BC007 on fatigue and quality of life in patients with Post-COVID syndrome (reCOVer): a prospective, exploratory, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomised phase IIa clinical trial (RCT) - eClinicalMedicine
 
I was thinking that next year(s) might give some clearer answers about the antibody-hypothesis.

- We already had negative results for Rituximab (which targets CD20),
- The Norwegians and possibly also Scheibenbogen will test treatments that target CD38
- DecodeME will re-analyze the HLA region in a big, well-characterized sample

If all of these show negative results, then the antibody theory would quite take a big blow and become less likely. If any of these does show an effect than it would be another big piece of the puzzle.
 
Robert 1973 said:
I’m looking forward to reading your end of year review @ME/CFS Science Blog. I wonder if any of the ME/CFS charities might be interested to publish it. As I struggle to keep up with research I find them to be a hugely useful and reliable resource.

[edit autocorrect]
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The Irish ME/CFS Association has included them in our newsletter and as the headline item in our email bulletins.
 
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