Chronic fatigue syndrome, once dismissed by some
medical experts as being all in the head, has a
clear biological basis, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said
.
A comprehensive study of
227 chronic fatigue syndrome patients shows several
genetic differences, the CDC
team found.
"It really is the first credible evidence for a
biological basis for chronic fatigue syndrome,"
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters
in a telephone briefing.
"For the first time ever, we have documented that
people with CFS have certain genes that are related
to the parts of the brain activity that mediate
the stress response," added Dr. William Reeves,
who heads CDC's chronic fatigue syndrome public
health research program.
"They have different gene activity levels that
are related to the body's ability to adapt to stresses
that occur through life." Such stresses may include
aging and illness, he added.
Researchers have recently discarded theories that
viruses like Epstein-Barr virus cause chronic fatigue
syndrome, or that some immune system weakness might
be involved.
"These findings are important because they will
help to focus our research efforts to identify diagnostic
tools and more effective treatments which ultimately
could alleviate a lot of pain and suffering," Reeves
said.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is defined by a range
of symptoms, including fatigue, swollen lymph nodes,
headaches, problems with memory and concentration
and often pain.
AT LEAST 1 MILLION WITH CHRONIC FATIGUE IN US
"At least a million American suffer from CFS,"
Reeves said.
"The average family in which a member suffers from
CFS forgoes an estimated $20,000 a year in lost
earnings and savings."
Writing in the April issue of Pharmacogenomics,
the CDC team said they extensively studied 227 volunteers
with chronic fatigue syndrome who spent two days
in a hospital ward. Their blood was studied, they
were watched and monitored as they slept, and the
activity of 20,000 genes was analyzed.
The journal also published more than a dozen papers
by researchers asserting a biological basis for
the syndrome.
The CDC used a new multidisciplinary approach,
which it calls Computational Challenge. They created
a molecular profile of each patient, said Dr. Suzanne
Vernon, Molecular Epidemiology Team Leader for the
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Laboratory.
"We put together four teams of different experts
and challenged them to develop ways to integrate
and analyze a wide range of medical data so as to
identify those things that could improve the diagnosis,
treatment, or understanding of CFS," Vernon said.
"Perhaps we are closest to being able to predict
how someone will respond to medications, for instance,"
Vernon added.
Gerberding said the new approach, which uses genetics
to look for causes of disease on a population-wide
level, might also be applied to diseases such as
autism, which many experts also believe may be caused
by an underlying genetic susceptibility.
