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Multicenter Study
. 2023 Aug;95(8):e28993.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.28993.

A multicenter virome analysis of blood, feces, and saliva in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

Thomas Briese  1   2 , Rafal Tokarz  1   2 , Lucinda Bateman  3 , Xiaoyu Che  1   4 , Cheng Guo  1 , Komal Jain  1 , Vishal Kapoor  1 , Susan Levine  5 , Mady Hornig  2 , Alexandra Oleynik  1 , Phenix-Lan Quan  1 , Wai H Wong  1 , Brent L Williams  1   2   6 , Suzanne D Vernon  3 , Nancy G Klimas  7   8 , Daniel L Peterson  9 , Jose G Montoya  10 , Walter Ian Lipkin  1   2   6   11
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

A multicenter virome analysis of blood, feces, and saliva in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

Thomas Briese et al. J Med Virol. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is estimated to affect 0.4%-2.5% of the global population. Most cases are unexplained; however, some patients describe an antecedent viral infection or response to antiviral medications. We report here a multicenter study for the presence of viral nucleic acid in blood, feces, and saliva of patients with ME/CFS using polymerase chain reaction and high-throughput sequencing. We found no consistent group-specific differences other than a lower prevalence of anelloviruses in cases compared to healthy controls. Our findings suggest that future investigations into viral infections in ME/CFS should focus on adaptive immune responses rather than surveillance for viral gene products.

Keywords: ME/CFS; chronic fatigue syndrome; myalgic encephalomyelitis; sequencing; virome.

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References

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