Finally! Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Biomarkers Identified

And other items from this week’s health news:

Good news for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers

Historically considered a syndrome that has no observable signs (only symptoms reported by the sufferer), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) now has some biomarkers identified, achieving 90% diagnostic accuracy—offering objective proof for a disease often dismissed due to a lack of lab evidence.

How it was done: researchers (Dr. Julia Oh et al.) showed how the gut microbiome, immune cells, and metabolites correlate with symptoms like fatigue, pain, and sleep disturbances. ME/CFS patients had reduced butyrate (a gut-beneficial fatty acid), elevated tryptophan and benzoate (indicators of microbial imbalance), and increased inflammatory responses, especially in cells linked to gut health. In terms of which parts did what, immune cell data best predicted overall symptom severity, while gut microbiome data correlated most with gastrointestinal, emotional, and sleep-related symptoms. Meanwhile, symptoms like dizziness, sleep disturbances, and headaches were linked directly to disruptions in gut-immune-metabolic networks, offering a systems-level disease view.

In other words, a lot of data.

It was also worthy of note that biological disruptions were less extensive in patients ill for under four years compared to those ill over a decade, implying worsening dysregulation over time.

Which makes it all the more important that we now have ways to categorically identify and thus usefully diagnose it:

Read in full: Previously undetectable biomarkers in gut microbiome may predict “invisible” chronic fatigue syndrome, long COVID

Related: How To Be 7.5x More Likely To Develop Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Texas is taking the lead!

But not in good ways, unfortunately. This time it’s not about measles, though, and rather is about STI rates, especially on a county level. For example, Dallas county ranked 7th (in the US), with 1,314.5 STI cases per 100,000 people.

You might be wondering what STIs specifically, and: chlamydia and gonorrhea dominate case numbers, but syphilis and HIV are steadily rising, particularly in urban areas.

The report identified the following factors as being the main reasons the rates are rising so much:

• inadequate sex education
• limited access to affordable care and regular testing
• high infection rates among youth lacking primary care
• stigma and misinformation
• racial and economic disparities (impacting accessibility of testing and treatment)

In Texas, people aged 15–29 represent the largest portion of new infections, but before you write that off as “young people nowadays” who cannot contain their hormones, note that that’s new infections—the only reason older demographics score lower is because each instance of infection is less likely to be one’s first, the further one goes through life. Overall infection rates (i.e., not just “new infections”) are rising the highest in adults over 50.

Read in full: Texas counties have some of the highest STD rates in US, new report says

Related: Why STIs Are On The Rise In Older Adults

The change

Prostate cancer is one of the major killers of men, the top cancer for men by prevalence, and affects over 60% of men over the age of 60 (with that percentage then rising each year thereafter). Note that this means “if something else doesn’t kill you first, you are more likely to get this than not”.

Prostate cancer is also something where the early stages of it are often described “nothing to worry about for now; let’s keep an eye on it”.

Happily, researchers have now discovered how prostate cancer evolves into its most lethal form, neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). This was a win for medical AI (while both are called “AI”, this is incredibly different from ChatGPT et al.), and specifically, it was a 3d genome mapping breakthrough; using advanced genomic tools, they created the first 3D map of how prostate cancer cells rewire their DNA structure to enable and promote the aforementioned shift to NEPC.

Some technical bits for those who want it:

• The key proteins involved have been identified: FOXA2 and NKX2-1 drive the transformation by reprogramming the cancer cells; FOXA2 opens inaccessible DNA regions, allowing NKX2-1 to activate NEPC-related genes.
• The role of cbp and p300 enzymes have been identified: these enzymes help activate oncogenes crucial to the NEPC transformation, acting as co-drivers of the aggressive cancer form.
• A potential treatment has been identified: the drug CCS1477, a CBP/p300 inhibitor in clinical trials, successfully halted NEPC tumor growth in lab studies.

The latter is particularly important, as it allows for new treatment avenues for prostate cancers that become resistant to hormone therapy, by preventing or reversing the NEPC transition.

Read in full: Study uncovers how prostate cancer becomes deadly, offers hope for new treatments

Related: Prostate Health: What You Should Know

Take care!