Missailidis, Daniel, Armstrong, Christopher W, Anderson, Dovile et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2026 · DOI
Researchers studied immune cells from people with ME/CFS and found that these cells accumulate abnormal amounts of fats (lipids) compared to healthy controls. The cells also show changes in how they process and use these fats for energy. This discovery suggests that problems with how the body handles fats might be part of what makes ME/CFS different at the cellular level.
Understanding lipid metabolism abnormalities in ME/CFS cells provides new mechanistic insight into disease pathophysiology and identifies potential therapeutic targets. This work bridges cellular metabolism with immune dysfunction, which could guide future studies investigating how metabolic changes affect immune cell function in ME/CFS.
This study does not prove that lipid accumulation causes ME/CFS symptoms or definitively establishes whether these metabolic changes occur in primary immune cells in patient blood. The findings are correlational and derived from immortalized cell lines, which may not fully represent the complex biology of living tissue and may not directly translate to therapeutic interventions.
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
Missailidis, Daniel, Armstrong, Christopher W, Anderson, Dovile, Allan, Claire Y, Sanislav, Oana, Smith, Paige K, et al. (2026). Multi-omics identifies lipid accumulation in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome cell lines: a case-control study.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-07620-x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-missailidis-2026-multi-omics,
author = {Missailidis, Daniel and Armstrong, Christopher W and Anderson, Dovile and Allan, Claire Y and Sanislav, Oana and Smith, Paige K and Esmaili, Tammy and Creek, Darren J and Annesley, Sarah J and Fisher, Paul R},
title = {Multi-omics identifies lipid accumulation in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome cell lines: a case-control study.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-025-07620-x},
note = {PubMed: 41508032},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/missailidis-2026-multi-omics},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/missailidis-2026-multi-omics
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