Moezzi, Atefeh, Ushenkina, Anastasiya, Widgren, Anna et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2025 · DOI
Researchers studied a protein called haptoglobin in people with ME/CFS and found it may be connected to post-exertional malaise (that worsening of symptoms after activity) and brain fog. They discovered that certain genetic variations of this protein were more common in ME/CFS patients, and those variations were linked to worse symptoms and cognitive problems. The study suggests haptoglobin could be a useful marker to help doctors understand why ME/CFS symptoms vary between patients.
Identifying a potential biological marker like haptoglobin could help ME/CFS patients in multiple ways: doctors might use it to predict who will have worse post-exertional symptoms, identify subgroups for targeted treatments, and develop new therapies aimed at reducing oxidative stress. This moves ME/CFS research closer to precision medicine approaches that account for the disease's clinical heterogeneity.
This study does not prove that haptoglobin phenotype causes post-exertional malaise or cognitive dysfunction—only that they are associated. The findings cannot yet explain whether changing haptoglobin levels would improve symptoms, and results from this single cohort require replication in larger, diverse populations before clinical use. The study does not establish which came first: the altered haptoglobin patterns or the ME/CFS symptoms.
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
Moezzi, Atefeh, Ushenkina, Anastasiya, Widgren, Anna, Bergquist, Jonas, Li, Peng, Xiao, Wenzhong, et al. (2025). Haptoglobin phenotypes and structural variants associate with post-exertional malaise and cognitive dysfunction in myalgic encephalomyelitis.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-07006-z
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-moezzi-2025-haptoglobin-phenotypes,
author = {Moezzi, Atefeh and Ushenkina, Anastasiya and Widgren, Anna and Bergquist, Jonas and Li, Peng and Xiao, Wenzhong and Rostami-Afshari, Bita and Leveau, Corinne and Elremaly, Wesam and Caraus, Iurie and Franco, Anita and Godbout, Christian and Nepotchatykh, Oleg and Moreau, Alain},
title = {Haptoglobin phenotypes and structural variants associate with post-exertional malaise and cognitive dysfunction in myalgic encephalomyelitis.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-025-07006-z},
note = {PubMed: 40877900},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/moezzi-2025-haptoglobin-phenotypes},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/moezzi-2025-haptoglobin-phenotypes
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