One idea about why people develop ME/CFS is that their own immune system starts attacking their body. The research team has already tested this idea by studying people with long COVID, which in many ways resembles ME/CFS. When they took antibodies from people with long COVID and gave them to mice, the mice developed symptoms similar to those experienced by people with long COVID.
The aim of this sub-project is to use the same approach, but with antibodies from people with ME/CFS. If the researchers find that the mice also develop symptoms, this would provide evidence that ME/CFS may be caused by the immune system not functioning properly (autoimmunity). This could help doctors diagnose ME/CFS by testing for these antibodies in the blood.
Moreover, if the researchers can induce ME/CFS-like symptoms in the mice, they could use them to test different medications and see whether any of these treatments might help people with ME/CFS.
This is the team
