Cytokine signature associated with disease severity in chronic fatigue syndrome patients

JG Montoya, TH Holmes… - Proceedings of the …, 2017 - National Acad Sciences
JG Montoya, TH Holmes, JN Anderson, HT Maecker, Y Rosenberg-Hasson, IJ Valencia…
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017National Acad Sciences
Although some signs of inflammation have been reported previously in patients with myalgic
encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), the data are limited and
contradictory. High-throughput methods now allow us to interrogate the human immune
system for multiple markers of inflammation at a scale that was not previously possible. To
determine whether a signature of serum cytokines could be associated with ME/CFS and
correlated with disease severity and fatigue duration, cytokines of 192 ME/CFS patients and …
Although some signs of inflammation have been reported previously in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), the data are limited and contradictory. High-throughput methods now allow us to interrogate the human immune system for multiple markers of inflammation at a scale that was not previously possible. To determine whether a signature of serum cytokines could be associated with ME/CFS and correlated with disease severity and fatigue duration, cytokines of 192 ME/CFS patients and 392 healthy controls were measured using a 51-multiplex array on a Luminex system. Each cytokine’s preprocessed data were regressed on ME/CFS severity plus covariates for age, sex, race, and an assay property of newly discovered importance: nonspecific binding. On average, TGF-β was elevated (P = 0.0052) and resistin was lower (P = 0.0052) in patients compared with controls. Seventeen cytokines had a statistically significant upward linear trend that correlated with ME/CFS severity: CCL11 (Eotaxin-1), CXCL1 (GROα), CXCL10 (IP-10), IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-5, IL-7, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-17F, leptin, G-CSF, GM-CSF, LIF, NGF, SCF, and TGF-α. Of the 17 cytokines that correlated with severity, 13 are proinflammatory, likely contributing to many of the symptoms experienced by patients and establishing a strong immune system component of the disease. Only CXCL9 (MIG) inversely correlated with fatigue duration.
National Acad Sciences