Lee, Ji-Sook, Lacerda, Eliana, Kingdon, Caroline et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2025 · DOI
This study compared immune system profiles in 96 ME/CFS patients with either mild/moderate or severe disease. Researchers found that people with severe ME/CFS had more activated immune cells and higher levels of inflammatory chemicals, while those with milder disease showed different patterns suggesting their bodies were responding to chronic viral infection. These findings suggest that mild and severe ME/CFS may involve different underlying immune problems, which could eventually help doctors predict disease severity and develop targeted treatments.
This research provides objective immune markers that could help distinguish between different types of ME/CFS and predict disease severity, addressing a critical gap in clinical diagnosis and prognosis. By identifying different immune dysfunction patterns in mild versus severe disease, it opens pathways for developing stratified, targeted treatments rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. This work validates that ME/CFS has measurable biological underpinnings and is not solely psychological.
This cross-sectional study cannot prove that these immune differences cause disease severity—the relationship could be reversed or influenced by unmeasured factors. It does not establish whether these immune patterns are stable over time or change as disease progresses. The study cannot determine whether targeted immune interventions based on these markers would improve 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 →
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
Lee, Ji-Sook, Lacerda, Eliana, Kingdon, Caroline, Abken, Ella, Susannini, Giada, Dockrell, Hazel M, et al. (2025). Abnormal T-Cell activation and cytotoxic T-Cell frequency discriminate symptom severity in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-07507-x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-lee-2025-abnormal-cell-2,
author = {Lee, Ji-Sook and Lacerda, Eliana and Kingdon, Caroline and Abken, Ella and Susannini, Giada and Dockrell, Hazel M and Nacul, Luis and Cliff, Jacqueline M},
title = {Abnormal T-Cell activation and cytotoxic T-Cell frequency discriminate symptom severity in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-025-07507-x},
note = {PubMed: 41373029},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lee-2025-abnormal-cell-2},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lee-2025-abnormal-cell-2
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