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[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 1 points 10 minutes ago* (last edited 10 minutes ago)

Hopefully it’s something immunomodulators can fix. Fingers crossed.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 2 points 27 minutes ago

Probably triggered. But we don’t really know.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 2 points 33 minutes ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

Hey I’m a researcher who works on ME (in the past called CFS).

ME/CFS is currently classified as a disease/biological illness according to the CDC.

ME is a disease state in itself. We don’t know much about it, but it can’t be explained by other diagnoses, as the defining factor, neuro-immune abnormalities including immune activation showing up post exertion is unique to it. You’re completely right that we don’t yet have a reliable biomarker. We have a test that differentiates from healthy controls, but it was discontinued for ethical reasons because conducting the test leads to a sometimes permanent worsening of the illness.

In the past it’s been mixed up and jumbled a lot, but the picture is getting clearer.

There have been a few case reports of degenerative forms of the illness. But in general it takes a more classical relapsing remitting pattern. Although even in less bad stages some patients are severely functionally disabled, even bedridden and tubefed. It has a really wide range of severities with the least severely affected able to work part time and walk and travel, while the most severe might not even be able to communicate.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 6 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Couldn’t have said it better. And yes, science journalism often is basically repeating and dumbing down what a study says, but in science, and especially in medicine, a lot of studies tend to be wrong, make false assumptions, or overstate their findings, while journalists tend to take them for their word. There’s a reason you hear of a new cancer treatment in the news every other week but few actually make it past FDA approval.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 2 points 5 days ago

Well the problem is we know very little. So a movie like that would be complete guesswork.

You might enjoy the youtube channel “Stephan Milo” though. His videos are well sourced and have a lot of expert interviews. And he focuses on this kind of stuff.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Cool.

Title might be a bit clickbait though.

It’s oldest known representational art. Not oldest known art.

For example the carvings in the Blomos cave in South Africa are atleast 75’000 years old.

Edit: Thank you for editing the title! That’s pretty weird mistake by Nature I thought they had high standards. Well they have peer reviewed and approved some dodgy research in my field recently so maybe I should be more skeptical.

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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Neurologist@mander.xyz to c/science@lemmy.world

ELI12 TLDR: Decent accuracy was found ~80% when using these to differentiate between people with Long COVID versus people who had recovered. People with Long COVID tend to have high Artemin which is linked to nerve cell communication problems and the elevated levels found may provide a clue into the cognitive problems many of these patients have. High Galectin-9 levels (which were also found here) are often associated with immune issues such as overactivation, which seems to fit well with all the immune abnormalities we see in these patients.

Abstract: This study aimed to assess plasma galectin-9 (Gal-9) and artemin (ARTN) concentrations as potential biomarkers to differentiate individuals with Long COVID (LC) patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) from SARS-CoV-2 recovered (R) and healthy controls (HCs). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined a cut-off value of plasma Gal-9 and ARTN to differentiate LC patients from the R group and HCs in two independent cohorts. Positive correlations were observed between elevated plasma Gal-9 levels and inflammatory markers (e.g. SAA and IP-10), as well as sCD14 and I-FABP in LC patients. Gal-9 also exhibited a positive correlation with cognitive failure scores, suggesting its potential role in cognitive impairment in LC patients with ME/CFS. This study highlights plasma Gal-9 and/or ARTN as sensitive screening biomarkers for discriminating LC patients from controls. Notably, the elevation of LPS-binding protein in LC patients, as has been observed in HIV infected individuals, suggests microbial translocation. However, despite elevated Gal-9, we found a significant decline in ARTN levels in the plasma of people living with HIV (PLWH). Our study provides a novel and important role for Gal-9/ARTN in LC pathogenesis.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 9 points 4 weeks ago

hmmm. To be honest, that’s an okay summary out of context, but it really fails to grasp the essence of the paper. It’s not wrong per say, but it adds irrelevant details while withholding key information. I wouldn’t rely on chatgpt’s summary for this.

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz 11 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

There’s a feature of some Long COVID cases (~50%) which is also the defining feature of an illness called ME/CFS which has been caused by various forms of viral infections throughout history. (It is thought that a lot of Long COVID cases are ME/CFS). Anyways this feature is, Post-Exertional Malaise, a worsening of the illness after exertion beyond a certain threshold, which can entail hundreds of symptoms and be permanent.

This paper is a review of some of the biomedical studies looking at what could possibly cause this, and finds there is repeated data of Microvascular (blood vessels) and immunometabolic (metabolic markers relating to immune function) differences with healthy controls.

The leading hypotheses are that this is caused by mitochondrial dysfunction which is mediated by a dysregulated immune system.

Some of my colleagues were co-authors on this paper. I’ll forward the feedback that it is jargony.

37

Background

A considerable number of patients who contracted SARS-CoV-2 are affected by persistent multi-systemic symptoms, referred to as Post-COVID Condition (PCC). Post-exertional malaise (PEM) has been recognized as one of the most frequent manifestations of PCC and is a diagnostic criterion of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Yet, its underlying pathomechanisms remain poorly elucidated.

Results

Upon physical activity, affected patients exhibit a reduced systemic oxygen extraction and oxidative phosphorylation capacity. Accumulating evidence suggests that these are mediated by dysfunctions in mitochondrial capacities and microcirculation that are maintained by latent immune activation, conjointly impairing peripheral bioenergetics. Aggravating deficits in tissue perfusion and oxygen utilization during activities cause exertional intolerance that are frequently accompanied by tachycardia, dyspnea, early cessation of activity and elicit downstream metabolic effects. The accumulation of molecules such as lactate, reactive oxygen species or prostaglandins might trigger local and systemic immune activation. Subsequent intensification of bioenergetic inflexibilities, muscular ionic disturbances and modulation of central nervous system functions can lead to an exacerbation of existing pathologies and symptoms

[-] Neurologist@mander.xyz -4 points 2 months ago

FYI, you seem to be new here and seem not to be far-left. For your future enjoyment of lemmy, note that Lemmy.ML is a communist instance and therefore you may not like some of the content there.

Neurologist

joined 3 months ago