Seton, Katharine A, Carding, Simon R · Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025 · DOI
This study looks at how the immune system of ME/CFS patients reacts to bacteria in the gut. Many ME/CFS patients have changes in their gut bacteria and a leaky gut lining that allows bacteria and their toxic products to enter the bloodstream, potentially triggering widespread inflammation. The researchers developed methods to measure specific immune proteins (antibodies) that ME/CFS patients produce in response to these gut bacteria, compared to healthy household members.
Understanding antibody responses to gut microbes could help explain the chronic immune activation and inflammation seen in ME/CFS. These methods may eventually help identify which patients have leaky gut-driven pathology and could guide personalized treatments targeting the microbiome-immune axis. Standardizing these measurements is essential for comparing results across different research groups studying ME/CFS.
This methods paper does not establish whether anti-microbial antibodies cause ME/CFS symptoms or merely reflect immune changes. It does not prove that microbiome dysbiosis is the primary driver of ME/CFS, only that altered antibody responses to gut bacteria occur in some patients. The study cannot distinguish between antibodies that are harmful versus protective without functional studies.
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
Seton, Katharine A & Carding, Simon R (2025). Profiling Antibody Reactivity to Gut Microbes in ME/CFS Patients.. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-4498-0_16
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-seton-2025-profiling-antibody,
author = {Seton, Katharine A and Carding, Simon R},
title = {Profiling Antibody Reactivity to Gut Microbes in ME/CFS Patients.},
journal = {Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1007/978-1-0716-4498-0_16},
note = {PubMed: 40372689},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/seton-2025-profiling-antibody},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/seton-2025-profiling-antibody
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