Schutzer, Steven E, Angel, Thomas E, Liu, Tao et al. · PloS one · 2011 · DOI
This study examined spinal fluid from people with post-treatment Lyme disease and ME/CFS to see if these two conditions are different. Using advanced laboratory techniques, researchers found that each condition has a unique pattern of proteins in the spinal fluid, meaning they appear to be distinct diseases rather than the same illness. This discovery could eventually help doctors tell these conditions apart and develop better treatments for each.
This study addresses a critical clinical challenge: distinguishing ME/CFS from post-treatment Lyme disease, which share overlapping symptoms like fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. By identifying distinct protein signatures in cerebrospinal fluid, the research provides a foundation for developing diagnostic tests and understanding the biological basis of each condition separately, potentially leading to targeted treatments.
This study does not prove that the identified CSF proteins cause either condition or that they are useful clinical biomarkers—only that differences exist. The findings are preliminary and require validation in independent cohorts. The study does not establish whether post-treatment Lyme disease is a subset of ME/CFS, as its design cannot resolve this mechanistic question.
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
Schutzer, Steven E, Angel, Thomas E, Liu, Tao, Schepmoes, Athena A, Clauss, Therese R, Adkins, Joshua N, et al. (2011). Distinct cerebrospinal fluid proteomes differentiate post-treatment lyme disease from chronic fatigue syndrome.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017287
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-schutzer-2011-distinct-cerebrospinal,
author = {Schutzer, Steven E and Angel, Thomas E and Liu, Tao and Schepmoes, Athena A and Clauss, Therese R and Adkins, Joshua N and Camp, David G and Holland, Bart K and Bergquist, Jonas and Coyle, Patricia K and Smith, Richard D and Fallon, Brian A and Natelson, Benjamin H},
title = {Distinct cerebrospinal fluid proteomes differentiate post-treatment lyme disease from chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {PloS one},
year = {2011},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0017287},
note = {PubMed: 21383843},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/schutzer-2011-distinct-cerebrospinal},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/schutzer-2011-distinct-cerebrospinal
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