Galbraith, Sally, Cameron, Barbara, Li, Hui et al. · The Journal of infectious diseases · 2011 · DOI
Researchers studied blood samples from 18 people who developed long-lasting fatigue after three different infections (Epstein-Barr virus, Ross River virus, and Q fever) and compared them to 18 healthy people who recovered normally. They looked for patterns in which genes were turned on or off that might explain the fatigue syndrome. While they found some differences in gene activity, these patterns were not consistent across the different infection groups, suggesting there may not be a single blood-based marker that identifies post-infectious fatigue.
This study is important because it directly addresses whether blood-based gene expression signatures can identify or explain ME/CFS, a key question for developing diagnostic tests and understanding disease mechanisms. The inclusion of multiple infection triggers and longitudinal sampling provides valuable evidence about whether postinfective fatigue syndromes share a common biological signature, which has implications for treatment strategies.
This study does not prove that ME/CFS has no biological basis—it only shows that a single, consistent gene expression signature in peripheral blood may not exist across different triggering infections. The absence of a universal biomarker does not rule out abnormalities in other tissues, immune cell subtypes, or alternative biological mechanisms. Lack of consistent findings across cohorts may reflect genuine biological differences between infection-triggered syndromes rather than absence of pathology.
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
Galbraith, Sally, Cameron, Barbara, Li, Hui, Lau, Diana, Vollmer-Conna, Ute, & Lloyd, Andrew R (2011). Peripheral blood gene expression in postinfective fatigue syndrome following from three different triggering infections.. The Journal of infectious diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jir612
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-galbraith-2011-peripheral-blood,
author = {Galbraith, Sally and Cameron, Barbara and Li, Hui and Lau, Diana and Vollmer-Conna, Ute and Lloyd, Andrew R},
title = {Peripheral blood gene expression in postinfective fatigue syndrome following from three different triggering infections.},
journal = {The Journal of infectious diseases},
year = {2011},
doi = {10.1093/infdis/jir612},
note = {PubMed: 21964398},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/galbraith-2011-peripheral-blood},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/galbraith-2011-peripheral-blood
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.