Unique spinal fluid proteins found in chronic fatigue, post Lyme disease syndrome patients

Chronic fatigue syndrome knocks people down with a debilitating fatigue, but researchers have yet to identify an underlying cause. Now, scientists examining the complement of proteins in spinal fluid have found that CFS patients carry a subset of proteins unique to their spinal fluid, compared to healthy volunteers. Included in the subset are proteins implicated in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, supporting the idea that CFS has an underlying neurological cause.

Of more than 2500 proteins found in the spinal fluid of volunteers, 724 were unique to healthy patients, 738 to chronic fatigue syndrome patients, and 692 to post lyme disease syndrome patients, differences between the illnesses that researchers can investigate further. Photo courtesy of Schutzer et al, PLoS ONE 2011.

In addition, the team also looked at people who had not fully recovered from Lyme disease after treatment, under the assumption that the two conditions are related because they have similar symptoms. Patients with this lingering Lyme disease, known as neurologic post treatment Lyme disease, shared some proteins in common with CFS patients - such as those involved in inflammation. But the two illnesses also had sets of proteins unique to each condition. The team, led by Steven E. Schutzer of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, and Richard D. Smith of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, hope the unique proteins can guide future research into the causes and possible treatments of the two diseases.

Researchers performed the protein analysis work at EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus.

Read the entire release from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey here.

Reference: Steven E. Schutzer, Thomas E. Angel., Tao Liu., Athena A. Schepmoes, Therese R. Clauss, Joshua N. Adkins, David G. Camp II, Bart K. Holland, Jonas Bergquist, Patricia K. Coyle, Richard D. Smith, Brian A. Fallon, Benjamin H. Natelson, Distinct Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteomes Differentiate Post-Treatment Lyme Disease from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Feb. 23, 2011 PLoS ONE , doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017287.

Source: Pacific Northwest National Lab