News From Jarred Younger / Neuroinflammation, Pain, and Fatigue Laboratory at UAB, From Aug 2020

"043 - New paper published! Air quality affects pain and fatigue.

Here is our new paper on air quality and chronic pain and fatigue. Just click the download button at: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1560

The real-time air quality map I used for this presentation can be found at: https://www2.purpleair.com/ . You can click on one of the map links on that page.

Jarred Younger"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqoSZwUZ2EM

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZWC59eLkw

 

"045 - Can we filter ME/CFS and Long-COVID out of our blood (apheresis)?

Two new pilot studies indicate that therapeutic apheresis may be helpful in controlling ME/CFS and Long-COVID symptoms. The published report can be found at: https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/a-2445-8593

Jarred Younger"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NSAdHFe7CU

 

046 - Does oxaloacetate reduce ME/CFS fatigue?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IMGWneBEsg

@6:40 He mentions using the Chalder Fatigue Scale uncritically, so this is not a study of PEM-ME.

 

"047 - Intranasal antihistamines may prevent Long-COVID

Here is the link to the open-access paper. You should be able to access it by clicking on the PDF button: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10388239/

- Jarred Younger"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRWY2ugEBbY

 

Has there been any updates on Younger's leukocyte tracking scan or his PET and MRI scans in ME/CFS patients? He mentioned the PET scan should be done in 2024 but it seems like its been a while since he's given any new info.

 

Here are the two ME/CFS neuroimaging studies out of his university that I can see. I think the first is the one you're asking about. Both still say "recruiting".

Tracking Peripheral Immune Cell Infiltration of the Brain in Central Inflammatory Disorders Using [Zr-89]Oxinate-4-labeled Leukocytes.
Primary/Study Completion (Estimated)
2028-10

Assessment of Neuroinflammation in Central Inflammatory Disorders Using [F-18]DPA-714.
Primary/Study Completion (Estimated)
2026-04-10

 

"Here is a new pilot clinical trial for managing chronic low back pain. You can find the full paper at: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/13/24/7601

Jarred Younger"

048 - Treating chronic low back pain with noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cU2yIQr7Ss

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GowsayN0Xkw

 

"050 - Why new medication might not help chronic pain

A short discussion on the use of FDA-approved medication JOURNAVX (suzetrigine) for chronic pain."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m6jw6THCtc

 

"Sorry for being gone for so long! Here are some new analyses from my lab that show elevated lactate in the myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) brain. I believe these results show that ME/CFS involves brain inflammation.

You can find the article mentioned in the video here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30617782/

The brain images presented use this tool: https://neurotorium.org/tool/brain-atlas/

Jarred Younger"

051 - What is this lactate in the ME/CFS brain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDnKD5bpmb0

 

The lactate theory seems to vaguely gibe with effort preference theory or functional disorder. I'm not saying that in pejorative sense; I think it's possible that some part of the brain gets hypersensitized to what normally causes fatigue as in "key targets of inflammation causing drastically reduced activity". But I'm rather dismissive of the subtype theory. It's difficult to imagine multiple different direct causes resulting in same set of key symptoms. If there are indeed three distinct subtypes, I'd think they are more likely downstream expressions of the cause rather than the causes themselves.

 

I don't have a strong opinion on subgroups but don't think we have good reasons for ruling them out.

The key symptoms of ME/CFS are still vague enough to result from different processes. As we have seen in other threads, PEM is not one unique thing and is described differently in different people. I think it is hard to know if people with other conditions like MS or cancer would experience a definition of PEM and be included in ME/CFS if they didn't have a different diagnosis. The intermural study showed that some people that fit the definition of ME/CFS don't have it.

The mechanism that causes symptoms in ME/CFS might be caused by different upstream processes. In this case ME/CFS would not be one thing, and it would probably require different treatments to fix the same problem. If ME/CFS symptoms were caused by low oxygen in the brain for example, this could be for multiple reasons. Each reason might cause symptoms in the same way but would need different treatments.

I don't think the existence of subgroups changes how we approach the issue though. If there are subgroups we need to investigate those cases and understand them so we can remove them from the pool of ME/CFS people.

 

052 - Why most people are excluded from clinical trials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w51_8UOPWw

 

"A scan that measures your brain fuel

A technique called 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows us to measure how much critical adenosine triphosphate (ATP) you have in your brain. This scan may show us why people with ME/CFS have limited resources for sustained physical or mental activity. - Jarred Younger"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U9rARaqNws

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj1jno2T-0I

I'm a bit confused with this video, isn't he jumping the gun by saying in the future we'll be able to get treated by this technology? How does he know it works, if it's not been fully tested yet?

 

It’s high frequency focused ultrasound (HIFU) and is currently approved as a treatment for essential tremor and tremor dominant Parkinson’s. It works really well for those conditions but a friend who works in Parkinson’s told me that it hasn’t taken off because it is not profitable for hospitals or neurosurgeons bc of the way procedures like this are reimbursed in US. So that has delayed adoption. Not sure about the devices he’s talking about. The company I know of is called Insightec.

Don’t know how it could conceivably work for ME, or how you get approval for such a powerful device to be used in a study without a lot of evidence it could work..

[

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avJMtecHb4E

 

Younger talks about morphing microglia from inflammatory state to anti-inflammatory one. But he doesn't say how HIFU does that. It seems to me drugs are a better way if the inflammation is wide-spread as he thinks. I don't know why he would be turning to a focused energy device when he already has two "promising" drugs he wants to trial.

 

Sounds bizarre to me.