The biggest study to date on myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), or chronic fatigue syndrome (SFC), has revealed “genetic signals” linked to this disease. This is what researchers who led it announced during a press conference. Their results have not yet been published in a Reading Committee review, but they have been available since Wednesday, August 6, on the University of Edinburgh website, at the origin of the study.
“Understood, this pathology would affect several million people around the world and is associated with very disabling symptoms, such as exhaustion or difficulty thinking clearly”, recall the American review Science which echoes the discovery. There is no treatment to treat myalgic encephalomyelitis or tool to diagnose it precisely.
For this study called Decodeme, the researchers compared more than 15,000 DNA samples from around 22,000 people with DNA SFC of nearly 260,000 people who are free from it. All are from the United Kingdom and have European ancestry.
The researchers have thus identified eight regions of the genome which seem significantly different in people with SFC compared to others, “Which indicates that the genetic variants present thereby contribute to the risk of developing this disease”, precise New Scientist.
Legitimacy pending suitable treatments
This discovery does not allow you to develop suitable treatments immediately. But, Sonya Chowdhury is delighted, president of the British charitable association Action for Me and co -authority of the study, these works already allow “Validate and give credit” to people with this pathology. “Many have already heard of saying that myalgic encephalomyelitis was not a real disease. They go to the doctor and we do not believe them, they are told that it is an imaginary disease”, she reports.
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