Spinal Fluid Proteins are Markers for Lyme Disease & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lyme Disease and Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome
New research conducted by a team led by Steven E. Schutzer, MD, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, and Richard D. Smith, Ph.D., of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory involves using spinal fluid proteins as markers for disease. It has been difficult to diagnose patients who suffer from Neurologic Post Treatment Lyme Disease (nPTLS) and those with the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). However these researchers found that unique proteins discovered in spinal fluid can distinguish patients with these ailments.
Using high powered mass spectrometry and special protein separation techniques they found there were more than 2,500 detectable proteins. Previously there had been no available candidate biomarkers to distinguish between the two syndromes. So this is an exciting development.
The team’s next step will be to find the best biomarkers that give conclusive diagnostic results. In time this may lead to treatments that target a particular protein pathway.
The findings of this study were published in the journal PLoS ONE. They concluded that both conditions (nPTLS & CFS) involve the central nervous system and that protein abnormalities in the central nervous system are causes and/or effects of both conditions.
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Source: Science Daily
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