Moderate exercise increases expression for sensory, adrenergic and immune genes in CFS patients, but not in normal subjects

Alan R. Light,1,2 Andrea T. White,3 Ronald W. Hughen,1 and Kathleen C. Light1:

1 Dept. of Anesthesiology, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
2 Dept. of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
3 Exercise and Sport Science, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
Corresponding author: Alan R. Light, Contact: Tel: 1-801-587-4826, FAX: 1-801-581-4367, E-mail: alan.light@hsc.utah.edu


The experiments reported here show that 25 minutes of moderate exercise generates large and rapid increases in gene expression in leukocytes of CFS patients but not in control subjects.

Increases in mRNA were found for genes that can detect increases in muscle produced metabolites (ASIC3, P2X4, P2X5), genes that are essential for SNS processes (adrenergic α-2A, β-1, and β-2, as well as COMT), and immune function genes (IL10, and TLR4).

These findings confirm previous hypotheses suggesting that alterations in all parts of the HPA axis may mediate and sustain the symptoms of CFS and FMS.

These gene alterations suggest a potential role for alterations of peripheral sensory signaling in the symptoms of CFS, as has been proposed for FMS 69; 74.

They also suggest that a blood test could be devised as an objective biomarker for sensory muscle fatigue and muscle pain in CFS.