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ME/CFS Science
@mecfsscience.org

1) 🇺🇸 The Research team of Nancy Klimas in Florida has received a $ 3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their study will investigate whether exposure to toxic mold affects symptom severity and the immune system in ME/CFS patients.

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ME/CFS Science
@mecfsscience.org

2) The principal investigator is Lubov Nathanson, associate professor at Nova Southeastern University. The project runs until 2031 and will collect biological samples from 200 study participants (150 ME/CFS patients and 50 controls) and measure their exposure to mycotoxins.

ME/CFS Science
@mecfsscience.org

3) The NIH page gives some more info about the goals of the project. The authors write: "We hypothesize that mycotoxins induce transcriptomic reprogramming in immune cells and extracellular vesicles (EVs), leading to immune exhaustion and chronic inflammation."

ME/CFS Science
@mecfsscience.org

4) They plan to measure urinary mycotoxins and use single-cell RNA sequencing to define mycotoxin contribution to transcriptomic alterations in blood cell subsets in ME/CFS patients.

ME/CFS Science
@mecfsscience.org

5) The study will also integrate multi-omics data with machine learning to identify correlations between mycotoxin exposure, immune dysregulation, and symptom severity.

ME/CFS Science
@mecfsscience.org

I don't know more details but suspect we'll see data appearing sooner than that. It's likely a big project with multiple sub-studies some of which may have results sooner.

Katie As
@katieas.bsky.social

I’m glad to see it. I think environmental factors can play a big part. For me, I lived in mouldy houses for a few years before my triggering virus. Chemicals also seem 2have triggered inflammatory worsening events 4me through illness. Family member recently declined badly after living in mould.