A paper by Dr Bhupesh Prusty and his team, whose research has been supported by funding from ME Research UK, has been released as a pre-print, ahead of the peer-review process.
The peer-review process aims to assess the validity and quality of articles for publication (read more about how the process works). While caution should be applied when considering the findings from all published studies, those which have not yet gone through peer review require additional care to be taken.
The pre-print paper from Dr Prusty’s team builds on their previous work which suggests that reactivation of a specific herpesvirus in only a few cells in people with ME/CFS could lead to an inflammatory response across multiple systems in the body (read more about this work, which was presented at the Invest in ME Research 2023 conference).
The new study looks in more detail at the possible mechanisms of development of ME/CFS and long COVID, and also at the potential development of a biomarker for ME/CFS and long COVID.
Before a biomarker can be developed and used with confidence to diagnose ME/CFS, much more research is needed. For example, results must be replicated across larger sample sizes, across those with differing durations of illness, and using different control groups (for example, those with different chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases) before further conclusions can be drawn.
ME Research UK will comment on this study in more detail once it has been through the peer-review process. In the meantime, you can read more about Dr Prusty’s research (and that of Jarred Younger) in an article by Cort Johnson which will be posted here this afternoon.
