Charlotte Stephens, ME Association, 06 September, 2018.
This is a new pilot study funded by the ME Association Ramsay Research Fund that introduced a relatively new technique and provided for some intriguing results.
| “It is becoming clear that metabolic/energetic dysfunction plays a role in ME/CFS. More information is required to determine if these differences are driving the illness or are a consequence of having ME/CFS. “Single Cell Raman Spectroscopy is an exciting new tool which can give a readout on aspects of intracellular metabolism. Live cells/tissue are not required, which if the approach is successful, will be a major benefit in developing a diagnostic test.” Dr Karl Morten |
About the study
Dr Morten and Prof Wei Huang (Department of Engineering) from Oxford University, attempted to link mitochondrial dysfunction and ME/CFS pathogenesis by comparing the ‘fingerprint’ of a cell model containing no mitochondrial DNA (known as ‘ρ0’) to the ‘fingerprint’ of molecules from the blood cells of ME/CFS patients… (click below to read more).
For more on the amino acid phenylalanine in ME/CFS see also for example:
- Fluge et al. (2016) Metabolic profiling indicates impaired pyruvate dehydrogenase function in myalgic encephalopathy/chronic fatigue syndrome
- Niblett et al. (2007) Hematologic and urinary excretion anomalies in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
For more information on the research being conducted by Dr Morten’s team in Oxford (funded by the ME Association Ramsay Research Fund), see: