Dr Jonathan Kerr and colleagues at St George's University of London are investigating the genes which may be involved in causing CFS/ME as part of a Collaboration involving several centres in the UK. Preliminary work revealed that 16 genes occur at abnormal levels in CFS patients (see papers). Dr Kerr and his team have now repeated this pilot study using a much larger microarray (representing the entire human genome) in a larger number of patients, and have identified 88 genes that are abnormal (including the previously reported 16). In addition, heterogeneity in the gene levels revealed 7 subtypes of CFS with distinct profiles of clinical symptoms and severity. This paper will be published by the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

This work will now be repeated using a larger number of patients in order to confirm the existence of these CFS subtypes, to determine their natural history, the most important and predictive genes which can be used to aid diagnosis, and to determine the particular immune cells in which these abnormalities occur.


This work is a collaboration, involving a number of clinicians (see Clinical Team)