Multiple sclerosis-associated fatigue. Krupp et al. (2010)

Not a new article, but I was struck by this comment on the relation between fatigue and pro-inflammatory cytokines:

link to the article here

There are are no consistently observed associations between fatigue in ME and levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. But its interesting to see we're not alone.

 

Inflammatory cytokines are not associated with (reported) fatigue in Sjögren’s syndrome either...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00296-019-04354-0

Fact is, cytokines are not a biomarker for any illness except syndromes that centre around highly elevated cytokines, such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_release_syndrome.

 

Just wanted to add that indirect cytokine measures like CRP (which is raised when a person is overproducing IL6) ARE biomarkers for some illnesses, including polymyalgia rheumatica and PFAPA (periodic fever apthous stomatis adenitis syndrome).

Without the CRP, these things would just be ME or fibro, so its really a key marker in these diseases (I know about the PFAPA because I have it, and would not have been diagnosed without the raised CRP.)

(edited for typo)