In December 2023, ME Research UK attended a two-day conference organised by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and titled “Advancing ME/CFS Research: Identifying Targets for Intervention and Learning from Long COVID”.
Our reflections on the topics discussed at the conference are presented in this three-part series of articles.
1. Overview | 2. Research topics | 3. Treatment targets
The last NIH meeting, under the theme of “Accelerating Research on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”, was held four years ago in April 2019 – prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of long COVID.
The goal of the 2023 meeting was to “present the state-of-the-art science of ME/CFS research and identify targets for potential interventions that have arisen from the literature and clinical evidence from ME/CFS and long COVID observations”.
Overall, the talks given over the two-day period reflected this goal well, and a range of research relating to ME/CFS and long COVID was presented across several different areas including:
| Day 1 | Day 2 |
| The immune system | Long COVID and ME/CFS |
| Viruses | Gene regulation |
| Energy metabolism | The brain and spinal cord |
The conference also included presentations from early-career researchers and, importantly, talks from those with lived experience of ME/CFS and of long COVID.
The topics covered included the following:
- The lack of funding for ME/CFS, and the need to increase research capacity through interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Consistent evidence of biological abnormalities in people with ME/CFS and in those with long COVID.
- The need for research which studies ME/CFS and long COVID over time (longitudinal research).
- The importance of listening to those with lived experience of ME/CFS and/or long COVID.
- Emerging areas for potential intervention and drug repurposing.
1. Overview | 2. Research topics | 3. Treatment targets
