Trivedi, Malav S, Oltra, Elisa, Sarria, Leonor et al. · PloS one · 2018 · DOI
Researchers studied chemical tags on DNA (called methylation) in people with ME/CFS compared to healthy people. While the overall amount of these tags was similar between groups, they found specific locations on thousands of genes where the tags differed. Many of these differences were in genes involved in immune system function, which aligns with what doctors already know about ME/CFS affecting immunity.
This is the first comprehensive genome-wide epigenetic study of ME/CFS using advanced microarray technology, providing evidence that immune dysregulation in ME/CFS may have an epigenetic basis. If validated in larger cohorts, these methylation patterns could potentially serve as objective diagnostic biomarkers, addressing a critical unmet need in ME/CFS clinical practice.
This study does not prove that methylation changes cause ME/CFS—it only shows associations in a small sample. It cannot establish whether these epigenetic changes are primary drivers of disease or secondary consequences of the illness. Larger, prospective studies are needed to validate these findings and determine their clinical utility.
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
Trivedi, Malav S, Oltra, Elisa, Sarria, Leonor, Rose, Natasha, Beljanski, Vladimir, Fletcher, Mary Ann, et al. (2018). Identification of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-associated DNA methylation patterns.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201066
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-trivedi-2018-identification-myalgic,
author = {Trivedi, Malav S and Oltra, Elisa and Sarria, Leonor and Rose, Natasha and Beljanski, Vladimir and Fletcher, Mary Ann and Klimas, Nancy G and Nathanson, Lubov},
title = {Identification of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-associated DNA methylation patterns.},
journal = {PloS one},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0201066},
note = {PubMed: 30036399},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/trivedi-2018-identification-myalgic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/trivedi-2018-identification-myalgic
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