Aubrecht, Taryn G, Abi Salloum, Bachir, Ariza, Maria Eugenia et al. · Journal of behavioral and brain science · 2014 · DOI
This study looked at how stress and a virus protein linked to ME/CFS affect sickness symptoms in mice. Researchers gave mice either saline or a protein made by Epstein-Barr virus, then exposed some mice to restraint stress for either 1 or 3 days. Surprisingly, restraint stress alone caused sickness-like symptoms after 3 days, regardless of whether mice received the virus protein, and the virus protein didn't make stress effects worse.
Many ME/CFS patients report symptom onset or worsening following stress and potential viral reactivation. This study clarifies how stress duration—not just its presence—may determine whether viral factors trigger illness symptoms, potentially explaining why some stressful events trigger ME/CFS exacerbations while others do not.
This animal model study does not prove EBV-encoded dUTPase causes ME/CFS in humans, nor does it establish that humans would show identical stress-duration effects. The findings are correlative in mice and cannot directly be translated to human ME/CFS pathogenesis without further research.
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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Aubrecht, Taryn G, Abi Salloum, Bachir, Ariza, Maria Eugenia, Williams, Marshall, Reader, Brenda, Glaser, Ronald, et al. (2014). Restraint Induces Sickness Responses Independent of Injection with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-Encoded dUTPase.. Journal of behavioral and brain science. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2014.411049
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-aubrecht-2014-restraint-induces,
author = {Aubrecht, Taryn G and Abi Salloum, Bachir and Ariza, Maria Eugenia and Williams, Marshall and Reader, Brenda and Glaser, Ronald and Sheridan, John and Nelson, Randy J},
title = {Restraint Induces Sickness Responses Independent of Injection with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-Encoded dUTPase.},
journal = {Journal of behavioral and brain science},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.4236/jbbs.2014.411049},
note = {PubMed: 41868758},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aubrecht-2014-restraint-induces},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aubrecht-2014-restraint-induces
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