Davis, Leah, Higgs, Maisy, Snaith, Ailsa et al. · Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025 · DOI
This review examined research showing that ME/CFS, Gulf War Syndrome, and fibromyalgia may share similar problems with how the body produces energy and handles stress at the cellular level. Scientists found that these three conditions show signs of disrupted fat metabolism, energy production difficulties, and increased cellular damage from oxidative stress. Better understanding these shared biological problems could help doctors diagnose these conditions faster and develop treatments that target the root causes rather than just treating symptoms.
Identifying shared metabolic abnormalities across ME/CFS and related conditions could accelerate development of disease-specific biomarkers for earlier, more accurate diagnosis—addressing a major clinical gap where patients currently face lengthy, costly diagnostic processes. Understanding common metabolic mechanisms opens pathways for targeted treatments addressing underlying disease biology rather than symptomatic management alone, potentially transforming care for millions of patients with these debilitating conditions.
This systematic review does not establish causation—it identifies correlations between metabolic alterations and disease symptoms without proving which abnormalities drive disease development versus result from illness. The review does not validate any single biomarker for clinical diagnostic use; it synthesizes existing evidence and identifies patterns requiring prospective validation studies. It also does not demonstrate whether correcting these metabolic abnormalities would improve patient outcomes.
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 →
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Primary citation
Davis, Leah, Higgs, Maisy, Snaith, Ailsa, Lodge, Tiffany A, Strong, James, Espejo-Oltra, Jose A, et al. (2025). Dysregulation of lipid metabolism, energy production, and oxidative stress in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome and fibromyalgia.. Frontiers in neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1498981
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-davis-2025-dysregulation-lipid,
author = {Davis, Leah and Higgs, Maisy and Snaith, Ailsa and Lodge, Tiffany A and Strong, James and Espejo-Oltra, Jose A and Kujawski, Sławomir and Zalewski, Paweł and Pretorius, Etheresia and Hoerger, Michael and Morten, Karl J},
title = {Dysregulation of lipid metabolism, energy production, and oxidative stress in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome and fibromyalgia.},
journal = {Frontiers in neuroscience},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.3389/fnins.2025.1498981},
note = {PubMed: 40129725},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/davis-2025-dysregulation-lipid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/davis-2025-dysregulation-lipid
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