Cheema, Amanpreet K, Sarria, Leonor, Bekheit, Mina et al. · Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2020 · DOI
This study looked at tiny molecules called microRNAs in the blood of people with ME/CFS to understand how their immune system responds to exercise. The researchers discovered that men and women with ME/CFS show different patterns in these molecules, and they also found that nutritional status affects these patterns. These findings could help explain why some people experience worsening symptoms after exercise (post-exertional malaise) and suggest that treatment approaches may need to differ between men and women.
This is the first study to systematically examine sex-based differences in microRNA expression in ME/CFS, which is critical given the disease's higher prevalence in women and potential differential disease manifestations by sex. Understanding these molecular differences could lead to personalized, sex-appropriate treatment strategies and help explain why post-exertional malaise severity may vary between men and women. These findings advance biological understanding of ME/CFS and support the need for sex-stratified research design in future ME/CFS studies.
This study does not establish that microRNA differences cause ME/CFS or post-exertional malaise—it shows associations that require further investigation to determine causality. The findings cannot yet be applied clinically as diagnostic biomarkers without validation in independent cohorts. The study also does not clarify whether sex-based miRNA differences reflect biological sex differences, hormonal factors, or other sex-associated variables.
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
Cheema, Amanpreet K, Sarria, Leonor, Bekheit, Mina, Collado, Fanny, Almenar-Pérez, Eloy, Martín-Martínez, Eva, et al. (2020). Unravelling myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): Gender-specific changes in the microRNA expression profiling in ME/CFS.. Journal of cellular and molecular medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.15260
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-cheema-2020-unravelling-myalgic,
author = {Cheema, Amanpreet K and Sarria, Leonor and Bekheit, Mina and Collado, Fanny and Almenar-Pérez, Eloy and Martín-Martínez, Eva and Alegre, Jose and Castro-Marrero, Jesus and Fletcher, Mary A and Klimas, Nancy G and Oltra, Elisa and Nathanson, Lubov},
title = {Unravelling myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): Gender-specific changes in the microRNA expression profiling in ME/CFS.},
journal = {Journal of cellular and molecular medicine},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1111/jcmm.15260},
note = {PubMed: 32291908},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/cheema-2020-unravelling-myalgic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/cheema-2020-unravelling-myalgic
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.