ReviewFrontiers in pediatrics2018
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the Era of the Human Microbiome: Persistent Pathogens Drive Chronic Symptoms by Interfering With Host Metabolism, Gene Expression, and Immunity.
Review in Frontiers in pediatrics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review with meta-analysis of active herpesvirus infections in patients with COVID-19: Old players on the new field.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2023Pooled it
- The Efficacy of Vitamin D Supplementation in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Fatigue Symptoms Associated With COVID-19 in Convalescent or Recovered COVID-19 Patients; a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Moving the Needle on Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease and Heart Failure with Influenza Vaccination.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2021Pooled it
- More than 50 long-term effects of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Tryptophan Metabolism and Aryl-Hydrocarbon Receptor Agonists in the Gut Microbiome of People With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Article
- Acute Effects of Osteopathic Treatment in Long COVID-19 Patients with Fatigue Symptoms: A Randomized, Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
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- Visualizing fatigue mechanisms in non-communicable diseases: an integrative approach with multi-omics and machine learning.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Article
- Evaluating the Causal Role of Genetically Inferred Immune Cells and Inflammatory Cytokines on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- The potential therapeutic approaches targeting gut health in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): a narrative review.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Review
- Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in long COVID.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Impact of COVID-19 on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome-like illness prevalence: A cross-sectional survey.PloS one · 2024Article
- Neurological symphony: post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, an innovative pathophysiological exploration from neuraltherapeutic medicine.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2024Review
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: the biology of a neglected disease.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Risk Factors for Long COVID in Older Adults.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Systems-level temporal immune-metabolic profile in Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus infection.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Transcriptome from Paired Samples Improves the Power of Comprehensive COVID-19 Host-Viral Characterization.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Multi-'omics of gut microbiome-host interactions in short- and long-term myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients.Cell host & microbe · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The illness ME/CFS has been repeatedly tied to infectious agents such as Epstein Barr Virus. Expanding research on the human microbiome now allows ME/CFS-associated pathogens to be studied as interacting members of human microbiome communities. Humans harbor these vast ecosystems of bacteria, viruses and fungi in nearly all tissue and blood. Most well-studied inflammatory conditions are tied to dysbiosis or imbalance of the human microbiome. While gut microbiome dysbiosis has been identified in ME/CFS, microbes and viruses outside the gut can also contribute to the illness. Pathobionts, and their associated proteins/metabolites, often control human metabolism and gene expression in a manner that pushes the body toward a state of illness. Intracellular pathogens, including many associated with ME/CFS, drive microbiome dysbiosis by directly interfering with human transcription, translation, and DNA repair processes. Molecular mimicry between host and pathogen proteins/metabolites further complicates this interference. Other human pathogens disable mitochondria or dysregulate host nervous system signaling. Antibodies and/or clonal T cells identified in patients with ME/CFS are likely activated in response to these persistent microbiome pathogens. Different human pathogens have evolved similar survival mechanisms to disable the host immune response and host metabolic pathways. The metabolic dysfunction driven by these organisms can result in similar clusters of inflammatory symptoms. ME/CFS may be driven by this pathogen-induced dysfunction, with the nature of dysbiosis and symptom presentation varying based on a patient's unique infectious and environmental history. Under such conditions, patients would benefit from treatments that support the human immune system in an effort to reverse the infectious disease process.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.