ArticlePloS one2019
Whole blood human transcriptome and virome analysis of ME/CFS patients experiencing post-exertional malaise following cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recent research in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: an evidence map.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Physical activity, sedentary behavior and microbiome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of science and medicine in sport · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic Examination of Gene Expression and Proteomic Evidence Across Tissues Supports the Role of Mitochondrial Dysregulation in ME/CFS.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- SportsXbiodata: A web platform for integrative analysis of exercise-induced gene and protein expression.iScience · 2026Article
- Does Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Represent a Poly-Herpesvirus Post-Virus Infectious Disease?Viruses · 2025Review
- Mucosal Viruses in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle?International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- AI-driven multi-omics modeling of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.Nature medicine · 2025Article
- Oxidative stress is a shared characteristic of ME/CFS and Long COVID.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Article
- BioMapAI: Artificial Intelligence Multi-Omics Modeling of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Stress-Induced Changes in Immune Signatures in ME/CFS Patients Determined by Transcriptome Analysis.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Exploring the shared mechanism of fatigue between systemic lupus erythematosus and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: monocytic dysregulation and drug repurposing.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Physical Activity and Fatigue Symptoms: Neurotypical Adults and People with Chronic Multisymptom Illnesses.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2024Article
- Stress-Induced Transcriptomic Changes in Females with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Reveal Disrupted Immune Signatures.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Transmission dynamics of human herpesvirus 6A, 6B and 7 from whole genome sequences of families.Virology journal · 2022Article
- Bioinformatics and systems biology approach to identify the pathogenetic link of Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Article
- The Pathobiology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Case for Neuroglial Failure.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2022Article
- mapMECFS: a portal to enhance data discovery across biological disciplines and collaborative sites.Journal of translational medicine · 2021Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a syndrome of unknown etiology characterized by profound fatigue exacerbated by physical activity, also known as post-exertional malaise (PEM). Previously, we did not detect evidence of immune dysregulation or virus reactivation outside of PEM periods. Here we sought to determine whether cardiopulmonary exercise stress testing of ME/CFS patients could trigger such changes. ME/CFS patients (n = 14) and matched sedentary controls (n = 11) were subjected to cardiopulmonary exercise on 2 consecutive days and followed up to 7 days post-exercise, and longitudinal whole blood samples analyzed by RNA-seq. Although ME/CFS patients showed significant worsening of symptoms following exercise versus controls, with 8 of 14 ME/CFS patients showing reduced oxygen consumption ([Formula: see text]) on day 2, transcriptome analysis yielded only 6 differentially expressed gene (DEG) candidates when comparing ME/CFS patients to controls across all time points. None of the DEGs were related to immune signaling, and no DEGs were found in ME/CFS patients before and after exercise. Virome composition (P = 0.746 by chi-square test) and number of viral reads (P = 0.098 by paired t-test) were not significantly associated with PEM. These observations do not support transcriptionally-mediated immune cell dysregulation or viral reactivation in ME/CFS patients during symptomatic PEM episodes.
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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.