Ohba, Takuya, Domoto, Shinichi, Tanaka, Miyu et al. · Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin · 2019 · DOI
Researchers created a mouse model of ME/CFS by repeatedly forcing mice to swim, which produced fatigue-like behaviors similar to the human condition. They found that this stress reduced the activity of an important energy-producing enzyme called PDH in muscle cells. When they treated the mice with a drug that reactivates PDH, the fatigue-like symptoms improved, suggesting this enzyme may be a target for future ME/CFS treatments.
This study provides experimental support for a specific metabolic mechanism—impaired PDH function—that may underlie ME/CFS fatigue, opening a potential new avenue for drug development. If PDH dysfunction is confirmed in human ME/CFS patients, it could justify clinical trials of PDH-activating drugs like DCA, offering hope for a targeted treatment approach for a condition that currently lacks effective therapies.
This study does not prove that PDH dysfunction causes ME/CFS in humans or that it is the primary mechanism of the disease. The forced swimming model induces acute stress-related fatigue in mice, which may differ mechanistically from human ME/CFS, which is often triggered by viral infection or other factors. The correlation between reduced PDH activity and fatigue-like behavior does not establish causation, and further research is needed to determine whether PDH activation would benefit human patients.
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
Ohba, Takuya, Domoto, Shinichi, Tanaka, Miyu, Nakamura, Shinsuke, Shimazawa, Masamitsu, & Hara, Hideaki (2019). Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Induced by Repeated Forced Swimming in Mice.. Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1248/bpb.b19-00009
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-ohba-2019-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {Ohba, Takuya and Domoto, Shinichi and Tanaka, Miyu and Nakamura, Shinsuke and Shimazawa, Masamitsu and Hara, Hideaki},
title = {Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Induced by Repeated Forced Swimming in Mice.},
journal = {Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1248/bpb.b19-00009},
note = {PubMed: 31257290},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/ohba-2019-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/ohba-2019-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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