The Symposium on Viruses in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

Cort Johnson over at Phoenix Rising sent me two great links to information from a conference that was devoted specifically to viruses in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): the Symposium on Viruses in CFS. The Symposium took place directly after the International HHV-6 Conference in Baltimore, Md. in May of this year. It featured a who-who’s lineup of speakers in CFS research including Dr. Montoya, Dr. Kerr, Dr. Klimas, Dr. Vernon, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Peterson, Dr. Chia, Dr. De Meirleir and others.

The Symposium was also complete with ME/CFS patients who Cort says turned out in “full force”.

The infectious side of the research community may be the most innovative and creative of all. During the conference we got introduced to intriguing questions such as:

• Is a difficult to detect central nervous infection responsible for the mood disorders in ME/CFS?
• Could an endogenous retrovirus residing in ME/CFS patients DNA somehow have sprung to life?
• Could a smoldering infection in the heart be causing the fatigue in ME/CFS?
• Is there a distinct neuro-immune fatigue subset in this disease?
• Are we close to finding an immune biomarker for this disease?
• Has the Dubbo team figured out what happens as people come down with ME/CFS during an infection?
• How well do antiviral drugs work and what kinds of drugs are in the pipeline?
• Are entire networks of cells acting strangely in ME/CFS?

Speakers and topics covered at the Symposium included:

• J. G. Montoya. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on the use of Valganciclovir in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and elevated human herpesvirus and Epstein-Barr virus antibodies.
• K. Kondo. Identification of novel HHV-6 latent protein associated with mood disorders in CFS, depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and HHV-6 encephalopathy.
• B.T. Huber. EBV and IFN-a activation of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K18 and CFS.
• D. Lassner. Erthroviral myocarditis and fatigue like symptoms.
• J. Kerr. Stress and parvovirus B-19 associated arthritis and chronic fatigue.
• J. Chia. The role of enteroviruses in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
• D. Peterson. Antiviral treatment of patients with HHV-6, EBV and enterovirus: case reports.
• Prichard. New Developments in therapies for HHV-6 Infection.
• K. De Meirleir. Antiviral Treatment Strategies in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
• Andrew Lloyd. Investigation of the pathogenesis of post-infective fatigue in the Dubbo infection outcomes study (DIOS).
• Uté Vollmer-Conna. Cytokines in post-infective fatigue.
• Nancy Klimas. Immune Markers in Viral Reactivation.
• Suzanne Vernon. Genetic variation and altered immune activity in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
• An Overview of Post-Viral Fatigue: CFS or What? By Peter White.

The overview of the conference comes in two parts that you can access by clicking the links below. There is a lot of great information within these links so grab a cup of coffee and take some time to read it all!

The Symposium on Viruses in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)  (May, 2008): Part I

The Symposium on Viruses in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)  (June 2008): Part II