Saliva fatigue biomarker index as a marker for severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome in a community based sample

Leonard A. Jason, John Kalns, Alicia Richarte, Ben Z. Katz*, Chelsea Torres

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: The prevalence of pediatric Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) has been estimated from an ethnically and sociodemographically diverse community-based random sample of 10,119 youth aged 5–17. We assessed whether a salivary biomarker of fatigue could identify youth with ME/CFS. Study design: We examined the ratio of the concentrations of 2 peptide fragments in saliva, referred to as the Fatigue Biomarker Index (FBI), in participants from our study diagnosed with ME/CFS (n = 59) and matched controls (n = 39). Results: Significant overall differences were found in the FBI between those participants with severe ME/CFS and those with ME/CFS and the controls. Conclusions: If confirmed in other populations, the FBI could serve as an objective test to aid in the diagnosis of severe ME/CFS. Abbreviations: ANOVA: analysis of variance; BSA: bovine serum albumin; FBI: fatigue biomarker index; IM: infectious mononucleosis; ME/CFS: myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome; OF: oral fluid; S-ME/CFS: severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)189-195
Number of pages7
JournalFatigue: Biomedicine, Health and Behavior
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health [award number R01 HD072208]. We thank Alex Tomas for expert technical assistance.

Keywords

  • Fatigue biomarker index
  • chronc fatigue syndrome
  • myalgic encephalomyelitis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Medicine (miscellaneous)

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