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[Barbara.mj]

Gene cluster linked to chronic fatigue


July 05, 2007 03:15am

AUSTRALIAN researchers have identified a cluster of genes linked to chronic fatigue syndrome which may help finally explain the mysterious condition.

The team from the University of NSW sifted through more than six million pieces of DNA information in people who had glandular fever, including half who went on to develop chronic fatigue.

Their goal was to identify which genes appeared to be more active in the people who went on to get fatigue, to shed light on what triggers the unexplained condition.

Professor Andrew Lloyd and his colleagues at the Centre for Infection and Inflammation Research were able to find 35 genes linked to the symptoms of the illness.

“These (35) genes might point to the nature of the disease process that underlies chronic fatigue syndrome, which is currently unknown,” said Prof Lloyd, whose findings are published in the latest Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Chronic fatigue is most commonly triggered by an acute illness, like glandular fever.

It is characterised by extreme tiredness but recent studies have left researchers puzzled as to what it actually is.

“We know it's not a psychiatric disorder, and doesn't appear to have anything to do with immune responses or hormones or the severity of the virus,” Prof Lloyd said.

“So that's left us thinking it's some kind of brain disorder.”

The team decided to analyse brain patterns by studying blood samples of 15 people with glandular fever, including some who also developed fatigue.

The work was part of a larger project tracking the long-term health of people infected by three infections - the mosquito borne Ross River virus, Q fever bacterial infection and Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever - in the central NSW city of Dubbo.

Prof Lloyd said the findings were the tentative beginnings of better understanding the disease.

“It's given us the starting point for some gene expression pattern that might become a diagnostic test for the condition,” he said.

“And it's given some clues of what the disease process might be that underlies the disorder.”

http://www.news.com....5005961,00.html