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Review
. 2021 Feb 4;13(2):503.
doi: 10.3390/nu13020503.

Diagnostic and Pharmacological Potency of Creatine in Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome

Sergej M Ostojic  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Diagnostic and Pharmacological Potency of Creatine in Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome

Sergej M Ostojic. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) is a widespread chronic neurological disease with no definite etiological factor(s), no actual diagnostic test, and no approved pharmacological treatment, therapy, or cure. Among other features, PVFS could be accompanied by various irregularities in creatine metabolism, perturbing either tissue levels of creatine in the brain, the rates of phosphocreatine resynthesis in the skeletal muscle, or the concentrations of the enzyme creatine kinase in the blood. Furthermore, supplemental creatine and related guanidino compounds appear to impact both patient- and clinician-reported outcomes in syndromes and maladies with chronic fatigue. This paper critically overviews the most common disturbances in creatine metabolism in various PVFS populations, summarizes human trials on dietary creatine and creatine analogs in the syndrome, and discusses new frontiers and open questions for using creatine in a post-COVID-19 world.

Keywords: GAA; chronic fatigue syndrome; creatine; creatine kinase; post-viral fatigue syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.M.O. serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on creatine in health and medicine (AlzChem LLC). S.M.O. owns patent “Sports Supplements Based on Liquid Creatine” at European Patent Office (WO2019150323 A1), and active patent application “Synergistic Creatine” at UK Intellectual Property Office (GB2012773.4). S.M.O. has served as a speaker at Abbott Nutrition, a consultant of Allied Beverages Adriatic and IMLEK, and an advisory board member for the University of Novi Sad School of Medicine, and has received research funding related to creatine from the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development, Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research, AlzChem GmbH, KW Pfannenschmidt GmbH, and ThermoLife International LLC. SMO is an employee of the University of Novi Sad. SMO does not own stocks and shares in any organization. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Possible mechanisms of creatine action in post-viral fatigue syndrome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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