Oesch-Régeni, Boglárka, Germann, Nicolas, Hafer, Georg et al. · Journal of clinical medicine · 2025 · DOI
This small pilot study looked at seven ME/CFS patients who had high levels of specific antibodies (proteins the immune system makes) that may harm certain nerve and heart functions. The researchers gave these patients two types of blood-cleaning treatments—plasmapheresis (which filters antibodies out of blood) and immunoglobulins (healthy antibodies)—and tracked their symptoms and quality of life. They found that patients with higher levels of these harmful antibodies tended to report worse quality of life, and the treatments appeared to help reduce both the antibodies and improve how patients felt.
This study provides preliminary evidence that a specific subset of ME/CFS patients may have measurable autoimmune mechanisms (antibody-mediated) that could explain their symptoms and potentially respond to targeted immunological treatments. If validated in larger studies, identifying and treating autoantibody-positive ME/CFS patients could offer a path toward personalized medicine and symptom improvement for a currently untreatable condition.
This small pilot study does not prove that plasmapheresis and IVIG are effective treatments for ME/CFS generally, nor does it establish that elevated autoantibodies directly cause ME/CFS symptoms (correlation vs. causation). The lack of a control group, small sample size, and lack of blinding mean these findings are preliminary feasibility data requiring substantial validation in larger, controlled trials before clinical recommendations can be made.
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
Oesch-Régeni, Boglárka, Germann, Nicolas, Hafer, Georg, Schmid, Dagmar, & Arn, Norbert (2025). The Effect on Quality of Life of Therapeutic Plasmapheresis and Intravenous Immunoglobulins on a Population of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients with Elevated β-Adrenergic and M3-Muscarinic Receptor Antibodies-A Pilot Study.. Journal of clinical medicine. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14113802
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-oesch-rgeni-2025-effect-quality,
author = {Oesch-Régeni, Boglárka and Germann, Nicolas and Hafer, Georg and Schmid, Dagmar and Arn, Norbert},
title = {The Effect on Quality of Life of Therapeutic Plasmapheresis and Intravenous Immunoglobulins on a Population of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients with Elevated β-Adrenergic and M3-Muscarinic Receptor Antibodies-A Pilot Study.},
journal = {Journal of clinical medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.3390/jcm14113802},
note = {PubMed: 40507564},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/oesch-rgeni-2025-effect-quality},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/oesch-rgeni-2025-effect-quality
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