Increased circulating fibronectin, depletion of natural IgM and heightened EBV, HSV-1 reactivation in ME/CFS and long COVID

Zheng Liu, Claudia Hollmann, Sharada Kalanidhi, Arnhild Grothey, Sam Keating, Irene Mena-Palomo, Stephanie Lamer, Andreas Schlosser, Agnes Kaiping, Carsten Scheller, Franzeska Sotzny, Anna Horn, Carolin Nürnberger, Vladimir Cejka, Boshra Afshar, Thomas Bahmer, Stefan Schreiber, Jörg Janne Vehreschild, Olga Miljukov, Christian SchäferLuzie Kretzler, Thomas Keil, Jens-Peter Reese, Felizitas A Eichner, Lena Schmidbauer, Peter U Heuschmann, Stefan Störk, Caroline Morbach, Gabriela Riemekasten, Niklas Beyersdorf, Carmen Scheibenbogen, Robert K Naviaux, Marshall Williams, Maria E Ariza (Corresponding Author), Bhupesh K Prusty (Corresponding Author)

Research output: Working paperPreprint

Abstract

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex, debilitating, long-term illness without a diagnostic biomarker. ME/CFS patients share overlapping symptoms with long COVID patients, an observation which has strengthened the infectious origin hypothesis of ME/CFS. However, the exact sequence of events leading to disease development is largely unknown for both clinical conditions. Here we show antibody response to herpesvirus dUTPases, particularly to that of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and HSV-1, increased circulating fibronectin (FN1) levels in serum and depletion of natural IgM against fibronectin ((n)IgM-FN1) are common factors for both severe ME/CFS and long COVID. We provide evidence for herpesvirus dUTPases-mediated alterations in host cell cytoskeleton, mitochondrial dysfunction and OXPHOS. Our data show altered active immune complexes, immunoglobulin-mediated mitochondrial fragmentation as well as adaptive IgM production in ME/CFS patients. Our findings provide mechanistic insight into both ME/CFS and long COVID development. Finding of increased circulating FN1 and depletion of (n)IgM-FN1 as a biomarker for the severity of both ME/CFS and long COVID has an immediate implication in diagnostics and development of treatment modalities.

Original languageEnglish
PublishermedRxiv
Number of pages58
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jun 2023
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NamemedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences

Field of Science*

  • 3.1 Basic medicine
  • 3.3 Health sciences

Publication Type*

  • 6. Other publications

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