Dynamic Epigenetic Changes during a Relapse and Recovery Cycle in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

ABSTRACT: Purpose: ME/CFS is a debilitating and complex disease. The majority of patients exist in a chronic state of health where they are affected by relapse events. Precision medicine following patients can capture changes in the DNA methylation indicative of biological dysfunction Methods: DNA was extracted from the PBMCs of 2 ME/CFS patients and a age/gender matched control at five different time points. After performing RRBS the sequence was aligned to hg19 genome using Bismark. The data was analyzed using a Chi squared test through DMAP in order to determine variation between the patient and control groups across 40-220bp fragments of the genome. Results: A total of 17 and 14 statistically significant variably methylated fragements were indentified in each patient that strongly associated with a relapse event. These fragements were found on regions of regulatory importance of the genome that associated with immune (primarily inflammatory) and metabolic function. Conclusions: Our study represents the first investigation of ME/CFS patients using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing along a longitudinal timeframe. We captured a number of major variably methylated fragments in each patient that associated with their relapse events. Our results identified a number of differentially methylated regulatory elements and gene bodies that highlight the disturbed pathophysiology in ME/CFS. DNA methylation that differentiates disease variability in ongoing ME/CFS may have practical applications for strategies to deacrease the frequency and severity of relapse events.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE166592 | GEO | 2021/02/11

REPOSITORIES: GEO