Doctoral thesis on the relationship of viral infections to myalgic encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome

On 11 December at 15:00 in an open meeting of the Medical Promotion Council of RSU to be held in the Hippocrates Lecture Theatre (Riga, 16 Dzirciema Street) Santa Rasa will defend her doctoral thesis Association of persistent viral infections with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic and complex disease of unknown origin involving central nervous system and immune system disorders, cell energy metabolism and ion transport dysfunction, as well as cardiovascular abnormalities. It is considered that the potential viruses triggering ME/CFS are: human herpesvirus-6, human herpesvirus-7, parvovirus B19 and xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus.

The purpose of the thesis was to determine the involvement of human herpesvirus-6, human herpesvirus-7, parvovirus B19 and xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in the etiopathogenesis of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

The study comprised the analysis of the biological material of 200 patients with diagnosed ME/CFS and 150 apparently healthy individuals using methods of molecular biology, immunology and statistics, for determining the presence of viral infection markers, load, infection activity phase and the association of the level of cytokines with clinical symptoms.

The study did not reveal an association of the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus to myalgic encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome, whereas a higher HHV-6 and HHV-7 load and a significantly elevated level of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in patients with a more severe ME/CFS clinical course advocate on the involvement of these viral infections in ME/CFS development and clinical course.