Scheibenbogen, Carmen, Loebel, Madlen, Freitag, Helma et al. · PloS one · 2018 · DOI
This small study tested whether a blood-cleaning procedure called immunoadsorption could help ME/CFS patients who have specific antibodies attacking their nervous system. Ten patients received this treatment over 5 days, and seven reported symptom improvement during the procedure. Three patients had improvements lasting 6-12+ months, suggesting the treatment may help some people, though more research is needed.
This study provides biological evidence that at least a subset of ME/CFS patients may have an autoimmune mechanism targeting autonomic nervous system receptors, and demonstrates that autoantibody removal can produce clinical benefit. Identifying autoimmune subgroups could lead to targeted treatments and help explain heterogeneous disease mechanisms in ME/CFS.
This pilot study does not establish that immunoadsorption is an effective or safe treatment for ME/CFS broadly, as it involved only 10 patients without a control group and lacks blinding. The mechanism by which autoantibody removal improves symptoms is not definitively established. Results cannot be generalized to CFS/ME patients without elevated β2 autoantibodies or those with non-infectious disease onset.
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
Scheibenbogen, Carmen, Loebel, Madlen, Freitag, Helma, Krueger, Anne, Bauer, Sandra, Antelmann, Michaela, et al. (2018). Immunoadsorption to remove ß2 adrenergic receptor antibodies in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS/ME.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193672
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-scheibenbogen-2018-immunoadsorption-remove,
author = {Scheibenbogen, Carmen and Loebel, Madlen and Freitag, Helma and Krueger, Anne and Bauer, Sandra and Antelmann, Michaela and Doehner, Wolfram and Scherbakov, Nadja and Heidecke, Harald and Reinke, Petra and Volk, Hans-Dieter and Grabowski, Patricia},
title = {Immunoadsorption to remove ß2 adrenergic receptor antibodies in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS/ME.},
journal = {PloS one},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0193672},
note = {PubMed: 29543914},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/scheibenbogen-2018-immunoadsorption-remove},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/scheibenbogen-2018-immunoadsorption-remove
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