Bar-Tana, Jacob · Journal of translational medicine · 2025 · DOI
This study proposes that ME/CFS, Long COVID, and similar post-infection illnesses may all be caused by the same underlying problem: excessive activity of a cellular control system called mTORC1. The authors suggest that if this overactive system is the shared driver of these conditions, it could explain why patients experience fatigue, worsening after exercise, pain, heart rate changes, and brain fog—and it might point toward new treatments.
For ME/CFS patients, identifying a shared molecular driver (if validated) could transform understanding of disease mechanisms and unlock targeted therapeutic approaches currently unavailable. This framework potentially connects post-infection illnesses that have lacked coherent biological explanation, offering hope for treatments beyond symptom management. For researchers, this hypothesis provides a testable model to investigate commonalities across conditions that clinically resemble each other but have been studied separately.
This study does not prove that mTORC1 hyperactivation actually causes ME/CFS or Long COVID—it is a hypothesis based on literature synthesis, not experimental evidence from patient tissues or validated biomarkers. The paper does not demonstrate that targeting mTORC1 will treat these conditions, nor does it establish that mTORC1 dysregulation is the primary driver rather than a secondary consequence of post-infectious pathology. Direct mechanistic studies in patient populations are needed to test these claims.
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
Bar-Tana, Jacob (2025). mTORC1 syndrome (TorS): unifying paradigm for PASC, ME/CFS and PAIS.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-06220-z
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-bar-tana-2025-mtorc1-syndrome,
author = {Bar-Tana, Jacob},
title = {mTORC1 syndrome (TorS): unifying paradigm for PASC, ME/CFS and PAIS.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-025-06220-z},
note = {PubMed: 40059164},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bar-tana-2025-mtorc1-syndrome},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bar-tana-2025-mtorc1-syndrome
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