Our Research Digests

Welcome to the 85th edition of Emerge Australia’s Research Digest. As a special edition, this month’s digest recapitulates Emerge Australia’s ME/CFS Awareness Week Research Panel webinar, providing insight into how our local ME/CFS community is contributing to ME/CFS research in Australia; via their contributions to the ME/CFS Biobank and You+ME Registry Australia.

Welcome to the Research Digest’s 84th edition. This month we recap research studies of ME/CFS endothelial cell dysfunction and how metabolomics may provide insight into ME/CFS, pre-and post-exercise. Also presented, is advice for the treatment of Long Covid patients, given the injustices experienced by those with ME/CFS and a very honest account of what lengths a person living with ME/CFS will go to, in the absence of ME/CFS treatments; accenting the dire need for vital ME/CFS research funding.

Welcome to the 83rd edition of the Research Digest. This month’s edition features ME/CFS studies focused on orthostatic intolerance, the effects of Naltrexone on ME/CFS NK cells, as well as a promising ME/CFS eye movement diagnostic tool. This edition also highlights Emerge Australia’s radio interviews featuring Anne Wilson, our CEO campaigning for an update to the ME/CFS guidelines and Richard Schloeffel (our Medical Director) calling out the disbelief of ME/CFS as “Medical Abuse Syndrome”.

Welcome to the 82nd edition of the Research Digest. This month’s edition features studies investigating blood flow abnormalities that may contribute to the pathogenesis of ME/CFS and how lessons learnt from heat stroke may be useful to better understand ME/CFS. Further analysis of Long Covid and its overlap with ME/CFS symptomology is also presented with future research areas postulated. And last but not least, we present highlights from Anne Wilson’s recent radio interview on ABC Life Matters,

Welcome to the 81st edition of the Research Digest. This edition reviews research articles investigating the potential of the cortical autonomic network, to act as a therapeutic target for ME/CFS symptom management, the involvement of C1q in ME/CFS pathology and more evidence demonstrating a linkage between ME/CFS and Long Covid. The highlights from a radio interview featuring Emerge Australia’s CEO Anne Wilson on 2GB, are also presented.

Welcome to the 80th edition of the Research Digest. This edition summarises research papers trialling CT38s to investigate the involvement of the corticotropin-releasing factor system in ME/CFS and an Australian study observing the impact of life stressors, on those living with ME/CFS. The 80th and final edition of the research digest is concluded for 2021, with Emerge Australia’s full-page advertisement in the AFR, providing ME/CFS a voice in the national long COVID conversation.

Welcome to the 79th edition of the Research Digest. This month’s edition of the research digest presents an article distinguishing ME/CFS patients based upon herpesviruses serology and also a comprehensive examination of severely ill ME/CFS patients.  The 79th edition also highlights a review paper discussing redox imbalance and how this contributes to biological abnormalities that have long been known for ME/CFS, but now are also being observed in patients with acute and long COVID.

Welcome to the 78th edition of the Research Digest. This edition of the research digest features articles investigating ACE2 gene expression in ME/CFS blood cells and findings from a UK audit of doctors knowledge and experience with ME/CFS.  This edition also highlights recent reports in the media, articulating links between long-COVID and ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 77th edition of the Research Digest. This edition of the digest presents articles exploring the feasibility of N-of-1 observational design for the study of ME/CFS, and attribution theory to investigate the relationship between higher perceived stigma and lower functional status found in ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 76th edition of the Research Digest. This edition features articles describing the potential therapeutic benefit of low dose Naltrexone in ME/CFS and a pilot eLORETA study examining the central autonomic network involvement in PEM in ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 75th edition of the Research Digest. This edition features a study investigating pain pressure thresholds during orthostatic stress testing in patients with ME/CFS and another study evaluating hypothalamic/pituitary autoimmunity dysfunction.

Welcome to the 74th edition of the Research Digest. This edition features a systematic review of studies that investigate various sleep characteristics in ME/CFS and a pilot clinical trial of oral melatonin and zinc supplementation.

Welcome to the 73rd edition of the Research Digest featuring a report investigating the availability of preventative programs and their economic benefits for patients with ME/CFS and a review on the use of lymphoblastoid cell lines in studies looking at ME/CFS and other neurological disorders.

Welcome to the 72nd edition of the Research Digest. This fortnight’s edition features the results of an open-label trial looking at the tolerability and efficacy of Immunoglobulin treatment in ME/CFS patients and a study exploring the impact that ME/CFS has on occupational participation.

Welcome to the 71st edition of the Research Digest. This fortnight’s edition features a study investigating the suitability of sCD26 as a diagnostic marker and another looking at the association between ME/CFS symptomology and heart rate variability in male ME/CFS patients.

Welcome to the 70th edition of the Research Digest featuring a study analysing B cell repertoire and another investigating the relationship between OI and deconditioning in ME/CFS patients.

Welcome to the 69th edition of the Research Digest. This edition features a dataset analysis that aimed to find novel diagnostic biomarkers and a cytokine analysis of ME/CFS patients whom developed ME/CFS after contracting infectious mononucleosis.

Welcome to the 68th edition of the Research Digest featuring a review of the most recent research into the molecular basis of ME/CFS and a pilot study that investigates a potential risk factor for familial ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 67th edition of the Research Digest. This edition features two PEM studies. One that investigates the effect that PEM has on the functional connectivity of various brain regions, and the other looking at markers of arterial stiffness when ME/CFS patients are experiencing PEM.

Welcome to the 66th edition of the Research Digest featuring a study investigating the potential of measuring circulating levels of FGF21 and NT-proBNP as diagnostic biomarkers for ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 65th edition of the Research Digest. This fortnight’s edition features a study examining predicting factors of severe versus non-severe ME/CFS and a proteome study.

Welcome to the 64th edition of the Research Digest featuring a study which aimed to determine if there are risk factors that predispose an infectious mononucleosis patient to develop ME/CFS and another that looked at orthostatic stress and its involvement in PEM.

Welcome to the 63rd edition of the Research Digest. This edition features a study investigating the impact that ME/CFS has on the quality of life of a patients’ close family members, and a study identifying and measuring the epigenetic changes in the DNA of ME/CFS patients.

Welcome to the 62nd edition of the Research Digest featuring a study investigating the predictors of tachypnea in ME/CFS patients and a literature review examining GP knowledge and understanding of ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 61st edition of the Research Digest. This fortnight’s edition features a study investigating microRNA expression differences in ME/CFS patients before and after experiencing PEM, and a study that aimed to develop a sensor-based method to track upright activity as a way to measure ME/CFS disease severity.

Welcome to the 60th edition of the Research Digest featuring a study that aimed to determine whether there are differences in cardiac function in ME/CFS patients and a plasma proteomic analysis study.

Welcome to the 59th edition of the Research Digest. This issue features a review article on the eitology of ME/CFS and a systematic review of neuroimaging studies.

Welcome to the 58th edition of the Research Digest featuring a focus group study that aimed to gain insight into the PEM experiences of ME/CFS patients and a cluster analysis study defining subgroups of patients based on several measures of autonomic dysfunction.

Welcome to the 57th edition of the Research Digest featuring the results of the NHMRC ME/CFS Targeted Call for Research funding and a study that aimed to compare the subjective severity scoring of the SF-36 (based on the physical activity subscale) to two objective measures of activity in order to validate the way in which clinical severity is graded in ME/CFS.

Welcome to the 56th edition of the Research Digest. This issue features a systematic review on neuroimaging studies of ME/CFS and a paper that presents a conceptual framework for understanding the pathophysiology of ME/CFS over time.