“The ME/CFS study by Mella and Fluge is a key study for our field”
Professor Nancy Klimas, MD, is director at the ME/CFS and Gulf War Illness Research Center as well as Professor of Medicine at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She has expressed the following about the ME/CFS study that was recently published:
“The recent study of Drs. Øystein Fluge and Olav Mella demonstrating significant improvement in ME/CFS patients treated with the B cell depleting agent Rituximab is a key study for our field.
By showing that depleting B cells can cause dramatic improvement, the investigators point the field in the direction of autoimmunity, and autoimmunity caused by an autoantibody. However, there is one other plausible explanation: that the B cells were acting as a reservoir of infection and by depleting the B cell line the viral load can be brought down to the point of suppression by the immune system. Because EBV infection is harbored by B cells, as are several other putative latent viruses that could contribute to illness persistence, I believe both of these theories deserve vigorous scientific pursuit.
Many clinicians fail to realize the severity of the illness that has been termed ME/CFS. This is a profoundly ill population, the severity of illness scores are similar to congestive heart failure and severe rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. If a medication like Rituximab is found to be effective in validation studies, the risk/benefit ratio would justify its use in very ill ME/CFS patients.”