"AT LONG last, we are beginning to get to grips with chronic fatigue syndrome. Differences in gene expression have been found in the immune cells of people with the disease, a discovery that could lead to a blood test for the disorder and perhaps even to drugs for treating it.
While nobody doubts CFS exists, just about every aspect of it is controversial.
Some say it is the same as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME; others disagree.
Many specialists are convinced it does have a biological basis, but pinning down physical abnormalities common to all patients has proved tough. People with CFS have often received little sympathy from doctors who dismiss it as "all in the mind".
Now Jonathan Kerr's team, which is moving to St George's University of London, has compared levels of gene expression in the white blood cells of 25 healthy individuals with those in 25 patients diagnosed as having CFS according to strict criteria. The researchers found differences in 35 of the 9522 genes they analysed using DNA chip technology."
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