Antibody responses to Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 6 and human herpesvirus 7 in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, 1995, Sairenji et al

Antibody responses to Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 6 and human herpesvirus 7 in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

T Sairenji, K Yamanishi, Y Tachibana, G Bertoni, T Kurata

Abstract
To test for an association between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and infections with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7), antibodies to these viruses were tested in the serum from three groups of individuals: (1) 10 CFS patients with chronic fatigue beginning with a clinical pattern of acute infectious mononucleosis [IM; true chronic IM (CIM)]; (2) 10 CFS patients whose illness did not start with acute IM (non-CIM), and (3) healthy controls. High EBV antibody titers were demonstrated in most patients. Antibodies to ZEBRA, a product of the immediate early EBV gene BZLF1, were detected in the serum of CFS patients at a higher frequency than in healthy controls. Antibody titers to HHV-6 and HHV-7 were also higher in the patients with CFS than in the controls. These results are consistent with the view that CFS patients may have reactivations of EBV, HHV-6 and HHV-7.

Link (Intervirology) [Paywall]

 

Criteria is 1988 Holmes.

This paper is interesting because it looked at 10 people with ME/CFS whose illness was immediately preceded by an acute infectious mononucleosis (EBV) infection (CIM group), 10 whose did not (non-CIM), and 26 healthy controls. Both ME/CFS groups had higher antibody titers to EBV than controls, but somewhat surprisingly, the group whose illness began with EBV did not have higher titers than the other ME/CFS group.

These are the antibody titers to different parts of EBV. For the first column, VCA, the black dots are anti-VCA IgG, the open dots are anti-VCA IgM. The anti-VCA IgG titers are the most striking difference between ME/CFS and controls.


From CDC about these EBV antibodies:

Antibody titers to two different strains of HHV-6 type A, a strain of HHV-6 type B, and HHV-7 were also higher in both ME/CFS groups than controls, but not different between the two ME/CFS groups.


Quote discussing EBV

Quote discussing HHV