Domingues, Tiago Dias, Malato, João, Grabowska, Anna D et al. · Heliyon · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at whether past infections with common herpesviruses (like the virus that causes cold sores or chickenpox) are connected to specific symptoms in ME/CFS patients. Researchers tested blood samples from 222 ME/CFS patients and 46 MS patients to measure antibodies against six different herpesviruses, then compared these results to reported symptoms. They found some connections—particularly between a virus called HSV1 and brain fog in ME/CFS patients—but overall, herpesvirus antibodies explained symptoms better in MS patients than in ME/CFS patients.
Understanding whether common past viral infections contribute to ME/CFS symptoms could help explain disease mechanisms and potentially guide future treatments. This research also highlights that ME/CFS and MS, despite symptom overlap, may have fundamentally different relationships with herpesvirus exposure—a distinction that could inform how clinicians approach each condition differently.
This study does not prove that herpesviruses cause ME/CFS or its symptoms; it only shows statistical associations in a single time-point snapshot. The cross-sectional design cannot establish whether herpesvirus reactivation precedes symptoms or follows them, and the variable success of the machine learning model suggests herpesvirus antibodies alone are not reliable diagnostic markers. The authors note that the fluctuating nature of ME/CFS symptoms may have masked true associations.
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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