Enteroviruses in muscle tissue in CFS patients

A study made at Imperial College in London found an association between impaired muscle energy metabolism and the presence of enteroviruses in muscle biopsies from CFS patients. The article, Lane RJ, Soteriou BA, Zhang H, Archard LC, ”Enterovirus related metabolic myopathy: a postviral fatigue syndrome” (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2003 Oct;74(10):1382-6. ) is presently in the process of publication. The abstract presents it thus:

OBJECTIVE: To detect and characterise enterovirus RNA in skeletal muscle from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and to compare efficiency of muscle energy metabolism in enterovirus positive and negative CFS patients. METHODS: Quadriceps muscle biopsy samples from 48 patients with CFS were processed to detect enterovirus RNA by two stage, reverse transcription, nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-NPCR), using enterovirus group specific primer sets. Direct nucleotide sequencing of PCR products was used to characterise the enterovirus. Controls were 29 subjects with normal muscles. On the day of biopsy, each CFS patient undertook a subanaerobic threshold exercise test (SATET). Venous plasma lactate was measured immediately before and after exercise, and 30 minutes after testing. An abnormal lactate response to exercise (SATET+) was defined as an exercise test in which plasma lactate exceeded the upper 99% confidence limits for normal sedentary controls at two or more time points. RESULTS: Muscle biopsy samples from 20.8% of the CFS patients were positive for enterovirus sequences by RT-NPCR, while all the 29 control samples were negative; 58.3% of the CFS patients had a SATET+ response. Nine of the 10 enterovirus positive cases were among the 28 SATET+ patients (32.1%), compared with only one (5%) of the 20 SATET- patients. PCR products were most closely related to coxsackie B virus. CONCLUSIONS: There is an association between abnormal lactate response to exercise, reflecting impaired muscle energy metabolism, and the presence of enterovirus sequences in muscle in a proportion of CFS patients.

A related article, Behan PO, Behan WM, Gow JW, Cavanagh H, Gillespie S., ”Enteroviruses and postviral fatigue syndrome” was published in 1993 (Ciba Found Symp. 1993;173:146-54; discussion 154-9.). The authors conclude their abstract with these words:

An increase in the number and size of muscle mitochondria was found in 70% of PFS cases, suggesting an abnormality in metabolic function. Evidence of hypothalamic dysfunction was present, particularly involving 5-hydroxytryptamine metabolism. A putative model of PFS, based on persistent enteroviral infection in laboratory mice, revealed resolving inflammatory lesions in muscle with, however, a marked increase in the production of certain cytokines in the brain. This model may help to explain the pathogenesis of PFS.