Volgens een recente studie van Klimas en kollega's is neuropeptide Y (NPY, een neurotrans-mitter die een hoofdrol speelt in de stressresponse) een goede "thermometer" voor ME/CVS.

In de "periferie" zet NPY de fysiologische reaktie op stress in gang, terwijl NPY in de herse-nen juist een "kalmerende" werking heeft " (bijv. de bloeddruk en hartslag doet verlagen).

Verhoogde koncentraties NPY werden niet bij Golfoorlogsyndroom-patiënten vastgesteld.

Belangrijk is voorts te vermelden dat neuropeptide Y het afweersysteem "onderdrukt".

Plasma neuropeptide Y: a biomarker for symptom severity in chronic fatigue syndrome.

Behavioral and Brain Functions 2010, 6:76. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-6-76.

Fletcher MA, Rosenthal M, Antoni M, Ironson G, Zeng XR, Barnes Z, Harvey JM, Hurwitz B, Levis S, Broderick G, Klimas NG.

Published: 29 December 2010

Abstract (provisional)

Background

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a complex, multi-symptom illness

with a multisystem pathogenesis

involving alterations in the nervous, endocrine and immune systems.

Abnormalities in stress responses

have been identified as potential triggers or mediators of CFS symptoms.

This study focused on the stress mediator neuropeptide Y (NPY).

We hypothesized that NPY would be a useful biomarker for CFS.

Methods

The CFS patients (n = 93) were

from the Chronic Fatigue and Related Disorders Clinic at the University of Miami and

met the 1994 case definition of Fukuda and colleagues.

Healthy sedentary controls (n = 100) were from NIH or VA funded studies.

Another fatiguing, multi-symptom illness, Gulf War Illness (GWI), was also compared to CFS.

We measured NPY in plasma using a radioimmunoassay (RIA).

Psychometric measures, available for a subset of CFS patients included:

• Perceived Stress Scale,
• Profile of Mood States,
• ATQ Positive & Negative Self-Talk Scores,
• the COPE,
• the Beck Depression Inventory,
• Fatigue Symptom Inventory,
• Cognitive Capacity Screening Examination,
• Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36, and
• the Quality of Life Scale.

Results

Plasma NPY was elevated in CFS subjects,

compared to controls (p=.000) and to GWI cases (p=.000).

Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses indicated that

the predictive ability of plasma NPY

to distinguish CFS patients from healthy controls and from GWI

was significantly better than chance alone.

In 42 patients with CFS,

plasma NPY had significant correlations (<0.05) with

perceived stress, depression, anger/hostility, confusion,

negative thoughts, positive thoughts, general health, and cognitive status.

In each case the correlation (+ or -) was in the anticipated direction.

Conclusions

This study is the first in the CFS literature to report that

plasma NPY is elevated compared to healthy controls and to a fatigued comparison group, GWI patients.

The significant correlations of NPY with

stress, negative mood, general health, depression and cognitive function

strongly suggest that this peptide be considered as

a biomarker to distinguish subsets of CFS.

full-text:

http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/pdf/1744-9081-6-76.pdf