1) Dr. Jarred Younger has registered his trial of Low Dose Naltrexone, which will start next year. It uses a remote design so that people can participate from anywhere in the United States. Participants must be between the ages of 8 and 65 and meet ME-ICC criteria.

While European countries such as the Netherlands and Germany are increasing their investments in ME/CFS research, the US appears stuck in an opposite trend NIH funding for ME/CFS keeps falling 👇

1) New blog post: NIH funding for ME/CFS keeps falling. Last year, we calculated that the NIH funded 23 ME/CFS projects, totalling an investment of $10.1 million. In 2025, however, this amount decreased to $7.4 million for 18 projects.

1) This study by CDC researchers investigated dysregulation of the alternative complement pathway in ME/CFS. Unfortunately, it was based on the Georgia cohort and selected using the Reeves criteria. These captured a much wider group than just ME/CFS (2.54% of the population).

1) Someone pointed out that this study also found increased levels of fibronectin-1 in the plasma of ME/CFS patients. A 2023 Prusty paper reported this as well. Below is the graph with data from the Australian study

1) 🇦🇺 This new study tested the kynurenine pathway in the plasma of 61 ME/CFS patients and 61 controls. There were no differences in tryptophan or kynurenine, but further downstream, patients had increased levels of 3HK and lower levels of picolinic acid and quinolinic acid.

1) This factsheet for medical professionals received a lot of response and discussion. Some people felt it was dismissive of several findings in the ME/CFS field, so I want to give some more background and context.

If you haven’t read these before, I highly recommend them. #MEcfs #PwME #CFS

1) Prof. Scheibenbogen announced that the biopharma company Sanofi is willing to support a drug trial on ME/CFS led by the Charité. Sanofi also expressed an interest in gaining a better understanding of the disease and its mechanisms.

Looks like Nancy Klimas is doing an NIH study on "Microbiome targeted oral butyrate therapy" in Gulf War multisymptom illness More info: reporter.nih.gov/search/SRYAY...

1) We're busy with our yearly overview of the most interesting ME/CFS studies of 2025. We got the big ones like DecodeME, PrecisionLife, BiomapAI, the daratumumab pilot, Lipkin's study on heightened innate immunity, etc. Any ME/CFS papers that we certainly shouldn't miss?

This study is really promising, and although it has gotten underway it has not yet raised the full amount it needs and could really do with government support.

"The biggest problem may be resisting pressures to be more active, from health professionals, family, peers and the need to maintain self-esteem." The last part of that sentence gave me pause. This is a valuable read. #LongCOVID #MECFS

1) This Chinese study measured the gut microbiome in 40 ME/CFS patients and 40 controls. Consistent with previous studies, they found reduced microbiota diversity and lower levels of butyrate. Butyrate is important for maintaining the integrity of our gut barrier.

1) New factsheet: ME/CFS - information for medical professionals (6 pages). Written by Prof. Emeritus Jonathon Edwards and members of the Science for ME forum. A valuable text, useful to bookmark. A couple of quotes from key paragraphs 👇

1) This interesting short paper showed that the immune cells of Long Covid patients had a stronger response to viral mimics than controls. They produced more type I interferon.

1) Nature had a brief news article about the German investment in research on ME/CFS and Long Covid. Some quotes from scientists: “This is really major funding,” says Rafael Mikolajczyk, an epidemiologist at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.

1) Oliver Sacks, the neurologist known for his detailed case studies, seems to have fabricated and lied in many of his publications. This includes famous books such as 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' and 'Awakenings' on patients with encephalitis lethargica.

1) Missed this PrecisionLife paper from earlier this year. They looked at people who had high genetic risk factors for ME/CFS but did not develop the disease. They looked at what made this group unique and which genes might help to protect against ME/CFS.

Bit disappointed in this superficial review by the group of Warren Tate in what seems to be a predatory journal. Looks like we are not the only ones with that assessment, see comments on S4ME: www.s4me.info/thread...

1) The ME Association in the UK announced that it will invest £1.1m into the Rosetta Stone study. The study will compare the immune profile of ME/CFS and Long Covid patients, with 250 patients in each group.

Excellent thread summarising an important review of post- infectious syndromes that goes way beyond ME/CFS and long Covid

🇳🇴 Patients from Norway have created a petition to encourage the government to provide funding for the Daratumumab study and to strengthen future biomedical research efforts in ME CFS. You can sign the petition here:

1) A recent review on assessing ME/CFS symptoms recommended the following questionnaires and tools. It focuses on assessment tools that have been used the most in the past, but few are actually specific to ME/CFS, and some (such as the HADS and CFQ) are highly problematic.

Question: of all medical conditions and diseases*, which one's presentation do you think is most similar to ME/CFS? * Excluding overlapping syndromes such as fibromyalgia, Long Covid, POTS, MCAS, hEDS, etc., which are equally poorly understood.

1) Iwasaki's group has published a historical review of post-infectious syndromes. Infections are traditionally viewed as having two outcomes: you either die or fully recover. But there are reports of post-acute sequelae after multiple infections, not just after COVID-19...

1) A randomized trial from Boston shows that nicotinamide riboside supplementation (2000 mg/day) probably doesn't improve Long Covid symptoms such as fatigue or cognition. It increased NAD+ levels substantially (as intended), but there was no similar improvement in symptoms.

1) 🇳🇱 This Dutch study tested subcutaneous lidocaine in 103 Long Covid patients. The paper reports multiple improvements, but there are several caveats: - 29% dropped out - no placebo control group - physical component scores showed few improvements A brief breakdown...

1) This new study looked at the association between genetics and metabolism in both ME/CFS and controls using the UK Biobank. Several genes (LINC01701, HSD11B1, SCGN, and NLRC5) were significantly associated with metabolic markers in ME/CFS only.

1) 🧬 New results from the LOCOME project. It applied the combinatorial analytics of PrecisionLife on data from DecodeME. The 259 genes that were most associated with ME/CFS pointed to "neurological dysregulation, inflammation, cellular stress responses, and calcium signaling"

1) Prof. Ronald Davis gave a hopeful message during the last OMF’s Directors' talk. He said that the few ME/CFS patients who have been cured seem totally normal, so it appears that the disease does not cause degenerative damage to the body...

1) 🇳🇱 The funding agency ZonMw has published a new call for ME/CFS research. It focuses on drug repurposing, has a budget of € 3.5 million, and is only open to legal entities in the Netherlands. The first deadline is 17 March 2026.

1) No new research papers today, so we wanted to share some info from the big PAIS protest in the Netherlands on Sunday. It had a big turnout and reached the national press.

1) Interesting new hypothesis paper by the team of Ron Davis. They suspect that the recently discovered glymphatic system (the 'lymph nodes' of the brain) plays a role in ME/CFS pathology.

Interesting thread about fatigue a symptom that is extreme in many cases of ME/CFS but it is also present in any #autoimmunedisease - What surprises me is the lack of attention to hormones, vitamins and minerals levels

1) 🇸🇪 A database study from Sweden reports that patients with a registered Long Covid had higher rates of depression and anxiety in 2019 (before Sars-Cov-2) than controls. There are, however, several possible explanations for these findings.

1) From an new abstract: "We hypothesize that by conducting a fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) with stool from ME/CFS cases into mice that are engrafted with a functional human immune system, we can develop an animal model that will replicate ME/CFS-associated pathology."

Interesting lecture on persistent infections by Prof. Vincent Racaniello. Goes through many examples such as Herpes simplex, Hepatitis B and C, Ebola, SSPE in measles, Varicella-zoster, and EBV.

1) Dr. Michael Peluso will lead a big ME/CFS project called CHIME. The infrastructure first built for HIV, then used for Long Covid in the LIINC study, will now also help with studying pre-pandemic ME/CFS The research will focus on gut biopsies and PET-CT scans.

"How to Help With ME/CFS and Long COVID Disability Claims" www.medscape.com/viewarticle/... Lots of good tips to deal with insurance companies. Government schemes can vary by country but people in most countries can probably pick up useful tips from this also. #MEcfs #LongCovid #CFS #PwME

Good overview

1) In this new @OpenMedF video, Dr. Chris Armstrong explains his main hypothesis of ME/CFS. He suspects there is an inefficiency in producing ATP (energy), but this isn’t only about mitochondria (the engines), but also about the fuel they get...

1) The British group that started transfer experiments of fibromyalgia antibodies into mice now reports that this is probably mediated by mast cells.

1) Quite impressive that PolyBio (@polybioRF) has raised $42 million since 2021 with very little overhead. While we have doubts about their strong focus on viral persistence, their studies on brain scans and tissue samples look very interesting. 🧵

1) New sociology paper on severe ME/CFS. The authors analyzed 342 messages on Twitter/X to get insights into the daily reality of people with severe ME/CFS. They highlight the feeling of being trapped by the illness, profound isolation and longing for the outside world.

1) 🇧🇪 Another study found that antibodies of long COVID patients induce pain sensitivity in mice. Antibodies from controls, serum of Long Covid patients, or papain-digested antibodies did not have the same effect.

1) A paper from earlier this year reported that ME/CFS patients have a much bigger risk of cardiovascular disease than controls (adjusted odds ratio of 3.26). The study used data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), however, which has some big limitations...

1) INFO FOR RESEARCHERS: The charity ME Research UK (MERUK) has an open call for PhD-level research funding. Applicants should submit an Outline Proposal Form before Friday, 9 January 2026.

1) 🇺🇸 The RECOVER study published its data on Long COVID trajectories. Of those infected with SARS-CoV-2 infection, 5% had persistently high Long COVID-related symptom burden. An additional 12% had a high burden that fluctuated but did not improve over time.

1) Researchers from Stanford University published an important paper linking Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) with the autoimmune disease Lupus. The first (Dr. Shady Younis) and last author of the paper (Dr. William H. Robinson) have previously been involved in ME/CFS research.