New causes ofchronic encephalomyelitis (or chronic fatigue syndrome) been discovered? This chronic disease, which would affect between 130,000 and 270,000 people, remains poorly known, in particular because not all the people concerned have the same symptoms. Although it has often been associated with causes of infectious or immunological origin, it could in fact be the result of an imbalanced microbiota. Disturbances that could indeed explain why the immune system is disturbed in affected patients.
This is what two studies published on February 8, 2023 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. There first conducted by researchers at the Jackson Laboratory in the United States compared patients diagnosed in the last 4 years against others diagnosed more than 10 years ago. When those with short-term disease showed depletion of butyrate-producing microbes –”a metabolite providing up to 70% of their energy needs, which supports the intestinal immune system and protects against diseases of the digestive tract“ – the microbiota of long-term patients had recovered. Nevertheless, other symptoms associated with the disease persisted, including fibromyalgia and sleep disturbances.
The study ofcolumbia university did she show relationship between fatigue symptoms and low levels of certain species of gut bacteria, again butyrate, known to play a major role in modulating the immune system. A dozen species of bacteria could thus be analyzed for a better diagnosis of the disease.
“Although these results do not unequivocally demonstrate cause-effect relationships between microbiota disturbances and symptoms, these microbiome-symptom relationships present potentially actionable and manipulable targets for future therapeutic trials.“, said Brent L. Williams, of Columbia University.
Link between microbiota and personality
This is not the first time that the link between gut bacteria and fatigue has been mentioned by science. A January 2022 study published in the journal Nutriens had shown that the gut microbiota could be linked to the four distinct aspects of mental energy, mental fatigue, physical energy and physical fatigue, with an influence of diet.
According to the findings of this study,metabolism-associated bacteria and metabolome were associated with mental or physical energy, while inflammation-associated bacteria were associated with mental or physical fatigue“.
And this study was not itself is not the first of the researcher Ali Boolani, responsible for the study, on the subject. “These new findings support my previous work in which we report that feelings of energy are associated with metabolic processes, while feelings of fatigue are associated with inflammatory processes.“, he had declared.
Sources:
- Multi-omics of gut microbiome-host interactions in short- and long-term myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients, Jackson Laboratory, February 8, 2023
- Deficient butyrate-producing capacity in the gut microbiome is associated with bacterial network disturbances and fatigue symptoms in ME/CFS, Columbia University, February 8, 2023
- Trait Energy and Fatigue May Be Connected to Gut Bacteria among Young Physically Active Adults: An Exploratory Study, NutrientsJanuary 2022
