Petrov, Steliyan, Bozhkova, Martina, Ivanovska, Mariya et al. · Biomedicines · 2025 · DOI
This study compared immune system markers in people with ME/CFS and Long COVID to those of healthy individuals. Both patient groups showed similar immune problems: lower levels of protective immune cells and higher levels of inflammatory substances in their blood. The findings suggest that ME/CFS and Long COVID may involve very similar underlying immune dysfunction.
This research provides objective evidence that ME/CFS and Long COVID share comparable immune dysfunction patterns, which could validate emerging theories about shared pathophysiological mechanisms and inform unified diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. For patients, this strengthens the biological basis of both conditions and supports the recognition of ME/CFS as a serious organic illness rather than primarily psychological.
This study does not establish causation—it demonstrates correlation between immune markers and disease status at a single time point. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether immune changes cause symptoms or result from chronic illness. It also does not prove that these specific immune alterations are responsible for post-exertional malaise or other specific clinical features.
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
Petrov, Steliyan, Bozhkova, Martina, Ivanovska, Mariya, Kalfova, Teodora, Dudova, Dobrina, Nikolova, Ralitsa, et al. (2025). Comparable Immune Alterations and Inflammatory Signatures in ME/CFS and Long COVID.. Biomedicines. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines13123001
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-petrov-2025-comparable-immune,
author = {Petrov, Steliyan and Bozhkova, Martina and Ivanovska, Mariya and Kalfova, Teodora and Dudova, Dobrina and Nikolova, Ralitsa and Vaseva, Katya and Todorova, Yana and Aleksova, Milena and Nikolova, Maria and Taskov, Hristo and Murdjeva, Marianna and Maes, Michael},
title = {Comparable Immune Alterations and Inflammatory Signatures in ME/CFS and Long COVID.},
journal = {Biomedicines},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.3390/biomedicines13123001},
note = {PubMed: 41463013},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/petrov-2025-comparable-immune},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/petrov-2025-comparable-immune
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