Annesley, Sarah J, Missailidis, Daniel, Heng, Benjamin et al. · Trends in molecular medicine · 2024 · DOI
This article reviews recent research on ME/CFS and long COVID, two illnesses that share similar symptoms and may have overlapping causes. ME/CFS typically develops after a viral infection and can last for many years, while long COVID is a newer condition affecting some people recovering from COVID-19. By studying ME/CFS, which has been around longer, researchers hope to better understand what might happen to long COVID patients over time and develop better treatments and tests for both conditions.
This article is important because it connects decades of ME/CFS research to the current long COVID pandemic, potentially accelerating our understanding of post-viral chronic illnesses. Since ME/CFS has been studied longer and has a more established disease trajectory, insights from it could help predict and prevent long-term complications in long COVID patients. Better understanding of shared disease mechanisms may lead to treatments applicable to both conditions.
This editorial does not provide new experimental evidence or prove causation in disease mechanisms—it is a synthesis of existing research. The article does not establish that all ME/CFS cases and all long COVID cases follow identical pathological pathways, as significant heterogeneity likely exists within both conditions. It cannot predict which long COVID patients will develop chronic illness or how quickly progression will occur.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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