ME/CFS South Australia Inc: Findings From International Research Group Show HHV-6 Connection To Energy Production Problems In ME/CFS

ME/CFS SOUTH AUSTRALIA INC

Registered Charity 3104

Email:
sacfs@sacfs.asn.au

Mailing address:
PO Box 322,
Modbury North,
South Australia 5092

Phone:
1300 128 339

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday,
10am - 4pm
(phone)

ME/CFS South Australia Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.

ME/CFS South Australia Inc aims to keep members informed of various research projects, diets, medications, therapies, news items, etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.

Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this Web site are not necessarily the official views of the Society or its Committee and are not simply an endorsement of products or services.

Findings From International Research Group Show HHV-6 Connection To Energy Production Problems In ME/CFS

Saturday 2 May 2020

Findings from International Research Group Published in ImmunoHorizons Show HHV-6 Connection to Energy Production Problems in ME/CFS

In 2016, Bhupesh Prusty, PhD, a scientist at Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg in Germany, received pilot funding from the Solve M.E. Ramsay Research Grant Program to study the possible cause of dysfunctional mitochondria (energy producers in cells) in ME/CFS.

Dr. Prusty collaborated with an international group of researchers that included Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD, from UC San Diego School of Medicine (who has advanced a theory of “Cell Danger Response” in ME/CFS) and Carmen Scheibenbogen, MD, PhD, from Charité University in Berlin. The research team focused on Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV-6), which can lie dormant (known as viral latency) in human hosts by integrating with our chromosomes.

The researchers took culture medium from cells in a state of HHV-6 reactivation and applied it to a culture of healthy cells. They observed changes to mitochondrial structures associated with a low metabolic state. The same structural changes were also found when healthy cells were grown in a culture medium containing serum from ME/CFS patients. Removal of the ME/CFS patients’ serum from the cells resulted in the mitochondria exhibiting signs of proper functioning.