Kasimir, Francesca, Toomey, Danny, Liu, Zheng et al. · Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2022 · DOI
This study looked for signs of active HHV-6 virus (a common herpesvirus) in brain and spinal cord tissue from ME/CFS patients after death, compared to people without ME/CFS. Using a special detection technique, researchers found markers of active viral infection in the nervous tissue of ME/CFS patients but not in the control group. This suggests that HHV-6 may be reactivating specifically in the brain and nervous system in ME/CFS, rather than in the blood where it's usually tested.
If HHV-6 is actively replicating specifically in the brain and spinal cord of ME/CFS patients, this could explain why standard blood tests often miss the infection and why neurological symptoms are so prominent in this disease. This finding opens new possibilities for targeted antiviral treatments and could shift how researchers think about the relationship between herpesviruses and ME/CFS pathology.
This study does not prove that HHV-6 causes ME/CFS—it only shows an association in this small group of patients. It cannot determine whether the virus is the primary cause of disease, a consequence of immune dysfunction, or a contributing factor. Additionally, findings from postmortem tissue may not represent what occurs during active disease in living patients.
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
Kasimir, Francesca, Toomey, Danny, Liu, Zheng, Kaiping, Agnes C, Ariza, Maria Eugenia, & Prusty, Bhupesh K (2022). Tissue specific signature of HHV-6 infection in ME/CFS.. Frontiers in molecular biosciences. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2022.1044964
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kasimir-2022-tissue-specific,
author = {Kasimir, Francesca and Toomey, Danny and Liu, Zheng and Kaiping, Agnes C and Ariza, Maria Eugenia and Prusty, Bhupesh K},
title = {Tissue specific signature of HHV-6 infection in ME/CFS.},
journal = {Frontiers in molecular biosciences},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.3389/fmolb.2022.1044964},
note = {PubMed: 36589231},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kasimir-2022-tissue-specific},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kasimir-2022-tissue-specific
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