A systematic review of mitochondrial abnormalities in ME/CFS/systemic exertion intolerance disease, 2020, Holden et al.

A systematic review of mitochondrial abnormalities in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome/systemic exertion intolerance disease

https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12967-020-02452-3

 

I was very disappointed in this review paper. It started off well describing the method and techniques but I felt it lacked substance.

It would have been much more powerful if they had split the review into different topics. There were a lot of metabolomics studies which are not actually studying mitochondria. Even in that topic it is important to split blood metabolomics vs cellular metabolmics ie.. intracellular vs extracellular. Have a separate discussion about that.

One very important study did not make the final round and I don't know why. Item 43, The Stanford Xiannan Wang lab that found energy production was upregulated. This team are considered expert mito researchers. That paper also highlighted that the samples they received were PBMC cells and not in plasma/serum. The cells were put in culture and then treated for a long time.. They concluded that the finding of higher energy might be "more ATP is produced by non-mitochondrial sources.". That is certainly an area that could do with being investigated. They also said "Future studies are warranted to unravel why and how non-mitochondrial ATP production is activated in some patients, which will yield insights into novel strategies to address the pathological causes.". So yes, why not look at the high ATP subset of patients and see what can be learned about them in particular.
Paper : Elevated energy production in chronic fatigue syndrome patients

I thought the paper was missing a discsussion about the fact that presence of plasma/serum may play a role and finding a way to test the effect of plasma on mitochondria is a good avenue of study to pursue in the future.

They could have discussed new techniques such as the high power optical microscopes that allow real time visualisation of mitochondria.

The general conclusions are useless. Specify which diagnostic criteria to use. We need to look at different cells types and differing techniques until we find a clue, and not just repeat another PBMC Seahorse test. Why not pick low or high ATP groups of patients and do a longitudinal study. Look at the effect on mitochondria in and out of plasma. Lets have formal intracelluar proteomics and metabolomics to see what Mito components are upregulated and downregulated.

 

Just to quantify that statement. This is from the Xinnan Wang Lab website

 

there are multiple incorrect citations or misattributed findings .... is it appopriate to contact the authors of the review or those who were incorrectly cited/ not cited?

 

I don't see any reason not to send a quick e-mail. It could be worth discussing your concerns with other people first?

 

correction
https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12967-020-02575-7

eta:
https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12967-020-02575-7