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Exploring the Diagnostic Potential of Immune Biomarker Co-expression in Gulf War Illness

Discussion in 'ME/CFS research' started by Milo, May 3, 2018.

  1. Milo

    Milo Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Exploring the Diagnostic Potential of Immune Biomarker Co-expression in Gulf War Illness

    Link to paper here

    * Patients with ME are control in this study

    Authors:
    • Gordon Broderick, Mary Ann Fletcher, Michael Gallagher, Zachary Barnes, Suzanne D. Vernon, Nancy G. Klimas
    Abstract

    Complex disorders like Gulf War illness (GWI) often defy diagnosis on the basis of a single biomarker and may only be distinguishable by considering the co-expression of multiple markers measured in response to a challenge.

    We demonstrate the practical application of such an approach using an example where blood was collected from 26 GWI, 13 healthy control subjects, and 9 unhealthy controls with chronic fatigue at three points during a graded exercise challenge.

    A 3-way multivariate projection model based on 12 markers of endocrine and immune function was constructed using a training set of n = 10 GWI and n = 11 healthy controls.

    These groups were separated almost completely on the basis of two co-expression patterns. In a separate test set these same features allowed for discrimination of new GWI subjects (n = 16) from unhealthy (n = 9) and healthy control subjects with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 90%.
     
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  2. adambeyoncelowe

    adambeyoncelowe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Interesting. Do we know any more about this?
     
    Melanie likes this.
  3. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    ?
     
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  4. Milo

    Milo Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    What’s the question?
     
    Melanie likes this.
  5. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    It's pretty impossible to understand just what they found from this brief abstract, I think.

    I do wish they wouldn't use the phrase 'unhealthy subjects with chronic fatigue'. Do they mean CFS, or ME/CFS, or the symptom chronic fatigue?

    Given that the researchers include Nancy Klimas who is researching both GWI and ME/CFS, and has said in the past that she has found biological differences in tests between GWI and ME/CFS, and both differ from healthy controls, this seems to be saying the same thing.

    I wonder whether the headlining of GWI in this study, and only mentioning CF as one of the control groups is because the funding was for a GWI study.

    I think this is a replication study to see whether their findings from one small study provide reliable diagnostic markers for a second small group.
     
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  6. adambeyoncelowe

    adambeyoncelowe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I think CF here must mean CF and not ME or CFS. Klimas knows the difference. I assume she's pointing out that fatigued patients aren't the same as GWI patients.
     
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  7. Lisa108

    Lisa108 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Sci-hub link here
     
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  8. Lisa108

    Lisa108 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    On page 106 it says "9 male CFS subjects", though the criteria for diagnosis are not stated.
     
  9. Lisa108

    Lisa108 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    p.118
    "In this respect it was interesting to note that subjects with CFS,
    another fatiguing illness, did not manifest this pattern of cytokine
    co-expression to the same extent as GWI subjects. Indeed
    only two of the nine CFS controls were assigned to the GWI
    group by the classification model. Consequently even though
    metabolic repercussions may be similar, the basic mechanisms
    driving neuroendocrine-immune dysfunction might be quite
    different in GWI and these illnesses may constitute very distinct
    regulatory regimes [47]."
     
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  10. adambeyoncelowe

    adambeyoncelowe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Thanks for the clarification. That's encouraging.
     
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