Nagy-Szakal, Dorottya, Williams, Brent L, Mishra, Nischay et al. · Microbiome · 2017 · DOI
This study looked at the bacteria living in the gut of 50 ME/CFS patients and 50 healthy people to see if differences in gut bacteria might explain some ME/CFS symptoms. The researchers found that ME/CFS patients have unusual patterns of gut bacteria, and these patterns are different depending on whether the patient also has irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Importantly, the type and balance of gut bacteria were linked to how severe patients' fatigue, pain, and other symptoms were.
This research identifies measurable differences in gut bacteria that could help diagnose ME/CFS and distinguish patient subgroups, potentially leading to personalized treatment approaches. Understanding how gut dysbiosis relates to symptom severity may open new therapeutic avenues, such as targeted probiotics or dietary interventions. The finding that IBS masks some ME/CFS-specific bacterial changes suggests future studies should account for this co-morbidity to better understand the disease.
This study shows correlation between gut bacteria and ME/CFS but does not prove that dysbiosis causes ME/CFS symptoms—bacteria changes could be a consequence rather than a cause. The cross-sectional design captures only a single time point, so it cannot establish whether bacterial changes precede symptom onset or persist over time. The study also does not demonstrate that treating dysbiosis would improve 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
Nagy-Szakal, Dorottya, Williams, Brent L, Mishra, Nischay, Che, Xiaoyu, Lee, Bohyun, Bateman, Lucinda, et al. (2017). Fecal metagenomic profiles in subgroups of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.. Microbiome. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-017-0261-y
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-nagy-szakal-2017-fecal-metagenomic,
author = {Nagy-Szakal, Dorottya and Williams, Brent L and Mishra, Nischay and Che, Xiaoyu and Lee, Bohyun and Bateman, Lucinda and Klimas, Nancy G and Komaroff, Anthony L and Levine, Susan and Montoya, Jose G and Peterson, Daniel L and Ramanan, Devi and Jain, Komal and Eddy, Meredith L and Hornig, Mady and Lipkin, W Ian},
title = {Fecal metagenomic profiles in subgroups of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Microbiome},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1186/s40168-017-0261-y},
note = {PubMed: 28441964},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nagy-szakal-2017-fecal-metagenomic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nagy-szakal-2017-fecal-metagenomic
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