Bonilla, Hector, Hampton, Dylan, Marques de Menezes, Erika G et al. · Frontiers in immunology · 2022 · DOI
Researchers looked for tiny particles called extracellular vesicles in the blood of people with ME/CFS to see if they could help diagnose or understand the disease. They found that people with severe ME/CFS had higher levels of certain vesicles that come from B cells (immune cells) and platelets (blood clotting cells) compared to healthy people. While these differences were promising, they weren't strong enough to confirm they're reliable markers yet.
Finding reliable biomarkers for ME/CFS could transform patient care by enabling earlier diagnosis, better disease monitoring, and improved clinical trial design. Understanding whether B cells and platelets are dysregulated in ME/CFS may provide clues to the underlying mechanisms of the disease and guide future treatment development.
This study does not prove that elevated extracellular vesicles cause ME/CFS or that they are reliable diagnostic markers—the findings are suggestive but did not survive statistical correction for multiple testing. It also cannot establish whether the observed changes in B cell and platelet vesicles are primary drivers of disease or secondary consequences of illness.
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
Bonilla, Hector, Hampton, Dylan, Marques de Menezes, Erika G, Deng, Xutao, Montoya, José G, Anderson, Jill, et al. (2022). Comparative Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles in Patients with Severe and Mild Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Frontiers in immunology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.841910
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-bonilla-2022-comparative-analysis,
author = {Bonilla, Hector and Hampton, Dylan and Marques de Menezes, Erika G and Deng, Xutao and Montoya, José G and Anderson, Jill and Norris, Philip J},
title = {Comparative Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles in Patients with Severe and Mild Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.3389/fimmu.2022.841910},
note = {PubMed: 35309313},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bonilla-2022-comparative-analysis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bonilla-2022-comparative-analysis
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