Changes in Gut and Plasma Microbiome following Exercise Challenge in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

26683192

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1371/journal.pone.0145453

URI

Authors

Shukla SK, Cook D, Meyer J, Vernon SD, Le T, Clevidence D, Robertson CE, Schrodi SJ, Yale S, Frank DN

Journal

PloS one

Year

2015

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disease characterized by intense and debilitating fatigue not due to physical activity that has persisted for at least 6 months, post-exertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, and accompanied by a number of secondary symptoms, including sore throat, memory and concentration impairment, headache, and muscle/joint pain. In patients with post-exertional malaise, significant worsening of symptoms occurs following physical exertion and exercise challenge serves as a useful method for identifying biomarkers for exertion intolerance. Evidence suggests that intestinal dysbiosis and systemic responses to gut microorganisms may play a role in the symptomology of ME/CFS. As such, we hypothesized that post-exertion worsening of ME/CFS symptoms could be due to increased bacterial translocation from the intestine into the systemic circulation. To test this hypothesis, we collected symptom reports and blood and stool samples from ten clinically characterized ME/CFS patients and ten matched healthy controls before and 15 minutes, 48 hours, and 72 hours after a maximal exercise challenge. Microbiomes of blood and stool samples were examined. Stool sample microbiomes differed between ME/CFS patients and healthy controls in the abundance of several major bacterial phyla. Following maximal exercise challenge, there was an increase in relative abundance of 6 of the 9 major bacterial phyla/genera in ME/CFS patients from baseline to 72 hours post-exercise compared to only 2 of the 9 phyla/genera in controls (p = 0.005). There was also a significant difference in clearance of specific bacterial phyla from blood following exercise with high levels of bacterial sequences maintained at 72 hours post-exercise in ME/CFS patients versus clearance in the controls. These results provide evidence for a systemic effect of an altered gut microbiome in ME/CFS patients compared to controls. Upon exercise challenge, there were significant changes in the abundance of major bacterial phyla in the gut in ME/CFS patients not observed in healthy controls. In addition, compared to controls clearance of bacteria from the blood was delayed in ME/CFS patients following exercise. These findings suggest a role for an altered gut microbiome and increased bacterial translocation following exercise in ME/CFS patients that may account for the profound post-exertional malaise experienced by ME/CFS patients.

Experiment 1

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Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): Rimsha, WikiWorks, Victoria

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Chronic fatigue syndrome CFS,chronic fatigue syndrome,myalgic encephalitis,myalgic encephalomeyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome,Myalgic Encephalomyelitis,myalgic encephalomyelitis,Postviral fatigue syndrome,systemic exertion intolerance disease,Chronic fatigue syndrome

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: healthy controls

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: chronic fatigue syndrome patients

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: patients met the ME/CFS case definition criteria established by Fukuda et al in 1994

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 10

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 10

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): current use

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: Not specified

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Roche454

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Matched on Factors on which subjects have been matched on in a case-control study: age, body mass index, sex

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Shaimaa Elsafoury

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Source: Table 4

Description: Relative Abundance of Bacterial Phyla in Blood and Stool Samples from ME/CFS Patients and Health Controls.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in chronic fatigue syndrome patients

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Acidobacteriota

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks