Querec, Troy D, Lin, Jin-Mann S, Chen, Yang et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2023 · DOI
Researchers tested whether a specific immune cell function called natural killer (NK) cytotoxicity could be a reliable blood test to help diagnose ME/CFS. They compared 174 people with ME/CFS to 86 healthy people and found no meaningful difference between the two groups. This means the test is not accurate enough to use in clinics right now, and scientists need to keep searching for better biological markers of ME/CFS.
This rigorous multi-site study addresses a significant gap by systematically evaluating NK cytotoxicity as a potential diagnostic biomarker for ME/CFS using standardized methodology. A validated, clinically available blood test would help patients obtain faster, more reliable diagnoses and improve research standardization. This negative finding redirects scientific effort toward identifying more promising immune abnormalities.
This study does not prove that immune dysfunction is absent in ME/CFS—only that NK cytotoxicity measured by this specific assay is not a useful diagnostic marker. The findings do not eliminate the possibility that other immune parameters (cytokine profiles, T cell function, B cell abnormalities) may still be relevant to ME/CFS pathophysiology. Lack of difference between groups does not rule out NK dysfunction as a contributing factor in subsets of 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
Querec, Troy D, Lin, Jin-Mann S, Chen, Yang, Helton, Britany, Kogelnik, Andreas M, Klimas, Nancy G, et al. (2023). Natural killer cytotoxicity in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): a multi-site clinical assessment of ME/CFS (MCAM) sub-study.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-023-03958-2
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-querec-2023-natural-killer,
author = {Querec, Troy D and Lin, Jin-Mann S and Chen, Yang and Helton, Britany and Kogelnik, Andreas M and Klimas, Nancy G and Peterson, Daniel L and Bateman, Lucinda and Lapp, Charles and Podell, Richard N and Natelson, Benjamin H and Unger, Elizabeth R and MCAM Study Group},
title = {Natural killer cytotoxicity in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): a multi-site clinical assessment of ME/CFS (MCAM) sub-study.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-023-03958-2},
note = {PubMed: 37013608},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/querec-2023-natural-killer},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/querec-2023-natural-killer
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.