CDC Research Gains Media Coverage
Over the past year CDC scientists, in a unique collaboration
with experts in medicine, molecular biology, epidemiology, genomics,
mathematics, engineering and physics, analyzed and interpreted information
collected on 227 CFS patients and control subjects. In an intense effort to
identify factors that potentially cause or are related to CFS, the study
subjects spent two days in a hospital research ward undergoing detailed clinical
evaluations of sleep, cognitive, autonomic, endocrine and other lab
measures—including an assessment of the activity of 20,000 genes. Fourteen
papers from this study appear in the April issue of the journal
Pharmacogenomics.
Said CDC’s Dr. Suzanne Vernon, who conceived of the effort
dubbed the CFS Computational Challenge, “We put together four teams of different
experts and challenged them to develop ways to integrate and analyze a wide
range of medical data so as to identify those things that could improve the
diagnosis, treatment and understanding of CFS.”
The resulting research indicates genetic differences
suggesting a physical dysfunction in how the body processes stressors, from
hardship to injury and illness. This dysfunction may contribute to a chronic
“wearing-down” of multiple body systems. The study indicates changes in the
glucocorticoid receptor gene and genes related to sympathetic nervous system
activity—both related to the body’s automatic biologic mechanisms for responding
to pain, injury or other trauma. These genetic differences may also suggest that
some people are more susceptible to developing CFS.
The research also suggests that the pathophysiology of CFS
involves hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis dysfunction—long suspected as a
factor in the illness. Scientists also showed that CFS is quite heterogeneous,
and the mechanisms that cause the fatigue in the different CFS groups appear to
involve the brain, hormonal and immune systems.
These research results, as well as the unique method of
intense multidisciplinary study, received media coverage on National Public
Radio and in many leading publications including Nature, the
Washington Post, and the LA Times, as well as the Associated Press
and more.
Consider the following quote from
Nature—
indisputably one of the top medical-research publications in the
world, and a bellwether for thought leaders in those fields:
“The new results fit the existing idea that people
develop CFS when events such as infections, injury and trauma disrupt the
hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis, which is activated by physical and
emotional stress. Eventually this has effects throughout the body on the
immune and other systems, causing symptoms.”
That’s not new information to people who have followed CFS
research closely. But that kind of coverage, from a publication of this stature,
frames CFS in a new context for the scientists and health care professionals who
may have been undecided about its validity.
The complex nature of the findings and the innovative approach to the
data led to some uneven reporting, but the Association is continuing dialogue
with the media to promote subsequent stories and balanced coverage.
Here are links to some of the stronger stories freely accessible online:
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