Kaczmarek, Mateusz Piotr · PloS one · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at tiny molecules called microRNAs in the blood of people with ME/CFS to understand what might be going wrong. While different patients had different patterns of these microRNAs, the researchers found that they all tend to affect the same core group of genes—suggesting ME/CFS may disrupt similar biological pathways across patients. These changes seem to affect muscle blood flow during exercise, the body's ability to handle low oxygen, antioxidant defenses, and mitochondrial function.
This research helps explain why previous studies found different miRNAs in ME/CFS patients—they may all be disrupting the same underlying biological processes. Understanding this convergence provides a potential unifying mechanism for ME/CFS and identifies specific biological pathways (particularly mitochondrial function and oxygen handling) that could be targeted for treatment. The herpesvirus connection also opens avenues for investigating whether treating latent viral infections might help some patients.
This is a computational analysis, not direct experimental evidence—it does not prove that miRNA changes actually cause ME/CFS symptoms or are the primary driver of disease. The study cannot establish causation from correlation; these miRNA changes may be consequences of other disease processes rather than causes. The inferred link to herpesviruses is speculative and requires direct experimental testing to confirm.
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
Kaczmarek, Mateusz Piotr (2023). Heterogenous circulating miRNA changes in ME/CFS converge on a unified cluster of target genes: A computational analysis.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296060
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kaczmarek-2023-heterogenous-circulating,
author = {Kaczmarek, Mateusz Piotr},
title = {Heterogenous circulating miRNA changes in ME/CFS converge on a unified cluster of target genes: A computational analysis.},
journal = {PloS one},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0296060},
note = {PubMed: 38157384},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kaczmarek-2023-heterogenous-circulating},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kaczmarek-2023-heterogenous-circulating
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