Brown, Audrey E, Dibnah, Beth, Fisher, Emily et al. · Bioscience reports · 2018 · DOI
This study looked at muscle cells from ME/CFS patients to understand why their muscles struggle to use energy properly. Researchers tested two drugs (metformin and compound 991) that can activate AMPK, a protein that helps cells use glucose for energy. Both drugs successfully improved how the muscle cells used glucose, suggesting that the problem in ME/CFS muscles is not AMPK itself, but something that happens before AMPK gets activated.
Understanding the specific molecular dysfunction in ME/CFS muscle metabolism is crucial for developing targeted treatments. This research identifies AMPK as a potential therapeutic target and narrows down where the metabolic defect originates, potentially opening pathways for drug development to improve muscle energy utilization and reduce fatigue in patients.
This study does not prove that AMPK activators will improve symptoms in ME/CFS patients—these results are from laboratory-grown muscle cells, not whole living patients. It also does not identify the upstream defect causing AMPK activation failure during normal muscle contraction, nor does it demonstrate whether pharmacological AMPK activation would restore normal ATP production or muscle function in vivo.
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
Brown, Audrey E, Dibnah, Beth, Fisher, Emily, Newton, Julia L, & Walker, Mark (2018). Pharmacological activation of AMPK and glucose uptake in cultured human skeletal muscle cells from patients with ME/CFS.. Bioscience reports. https://doi.org/10.1042/BSR20180242
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-brown-2018-pharmacological-activation,
author = {Brown, Audrey E and Dibnah, Beth and Fisher, Emily and Newton, Julia L and Walker, Mark},
title = {Pharmacological activation of AMPK and glucose uptake in cultured human skeletal muscle cells from patients with ME/CFS.},
journal = {Bioscience reports},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1042/BSR20180242},
note = {PubMed: 29654166},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brown-2018-pharmacological-activation},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brown-2018-pharmacological-activation
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