Chronic fatigue syndrome knocks people down with a debilitating fatigue, but researchers have yet to identify an underlying cause. Now, scientists examining the complement of proteins in spinal fluid have found that CFS patients carry a subset of proteins unique to their spinal fluid, compared to healthy volunteers. Included in the subset are proteins implicated in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, supporting the idea that CFS has an underlying neurological cause.

In addition, the team also looked at people who had not fully recovered from Lyme disease after treatment, under the assumption that the two conditions are related because they have similar symptoms. Patients with this lingering Lyme disease, known as neurologic post treatment Lyme disease, shared some proteins in common with CFS patients — such as those involved in inflammation. But the two illnesses also had sets of proteins unique to each condition. The team, led by Steven E. Schutzer of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, and Richard D. Smith of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, hope the unique proteins can guide future research into the causes and possible treatments of the two diseases.

Researchers performed the protein analysis work at EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus.

Read the entire release from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey here.

Reference: Steven E. Schutzer, Thomas E. Angel., Tao Liu., Athena A. Schepmoes, Therese R. Clauss, Joshua N. Adkins, David G. Camp II, Bart K. Holland, Jonas Bergquist, Patricia K. Coyle, Richard D. Smith, Brian A. Fallon, Benjamin H. Natelson, Distinct Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteomes Differentiate Post-Treatment Lyme Disease from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Feb. 23, 2011 PLoS ONE , doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017287.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 6,000 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, which provides a continuum of healthcare services with multiple locations throughout the state.

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