The joy (and bane) of having a model is that when new information arrives, you can see if it supports or disagrees with the model. In some cases, it become a neutral — not sufficient information to make a determination.

The National ME/FM Action Network did an announcement of three bio markers, from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom (i.e. the British Commonwealth!)

• Canada: “These preliminary results suggest that IL-1α, 6 and 8 adjusted for illness duration may serve as robust biomarkers, independent of age, in screening for ME/CFS.”
• London: “Natural killer cells demonstrated the greatest changes in miRNA expression with up regulation of hsa-miR-99b and hsa-miR-330-3p. These findings are functionally consistent with current understanding of the pathogenesis of CFS/ME.” MicroRNAs hsa-miR-99b, hsa-miR-330, hsa-miR-126 and hsa-miR-30c: Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers in Natural Killer (NK) Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) [2016].
• Australia: ” the first to identify circulating miRNAs from ME/CFS patients. They found three distinct miRNAs that might serve as biomarkers.”

Testing against the model

• IL-1 alpha, IL-6, IL-8  – all of these are documented to be effected by probiotics
  • “but a combination of infections followed by cell damage leads to release of the intracellular cytokine interleukin (IL)-1 alpha from endometrial cells, which then acts to scale inflammatory responses.” [2016]
  • “, feeding maize fibre and soyabean fibre raised IL-1α and TNF-α mRNA levels.” [2013]
  • “Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG).. inhibits activation of …interleukin-1alpha, or gamma-interferon.” [2002]
  • ” mechanism of probiotics by testing effects of IL-α, which is upregulated in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Enterococcus  faecium-supplemented piglets,” [2013]
  • ” lactobacillus [Reuteri] inhibited the ETEC-induced expression of proinflammatory transcripts (IL-6 and TNF-α) and protein (IL-6),” [2016]
  • “L. salivarius PS2 intake led to a reduction in milk bacterial counts, milk and blood leukocyte counts and interleukin (IL)-8 level in milk,” [2016]
• hsa-miR-99b and hsa-miR-330-3p
  • Only 4 articles:
    • The hsa-miR-125a/hsa-let-7e/hsa-miR-99b cluster is potentially implicated in Cystic Fibrosis pathogenesis.
    • Differential expression of miRNAs in esophageal cancer tissue [2013].
    • Microrna profiling analysis of differences between the melanoma of young adults and older adults.
    • All of the above are conditions associated with low Vitamin D levels, as is CFS.

Looking at miRNA

• “Our results suggest that 68 bacterial RNAs predicted from 37 different bacterial genomes have predicted secondary structures potentially able to generate putative microRNAs that may interact with messenger RNAs of genes involved in 47 different human diseases.” [2014] i.e. bacteria DNA is adopted into the human cells, producing miRNA.
• “a third mycobacterial species, M. marinum, did express an ∼23-nt small RNA that was bound by RISC and derived from an RNA stem-loop with the characteristics expected for a pre-microRNA.” [2014]

Bottom Line

One set of markers is strongly associated with microbiome shifts. The second with Vitamin D levels.  miRNA can cross from bacteria (including gut bacteria) into human cells. All of these tests appear consistent with the microbiome model

While the tests may help with getting a faster diagnosis, they do not appear to lead to treatments.