Journal of IiME Volume 6 Issue 1 (June 2012) found in (ME)CFS patients….Circulating immune complexes have been observed in an average of 59% of (ME)CFS patients….A decrease in NK cell number or percent has been observed in up to 75% of patients, and NK cell function has also been found to be diminished…The immunologic aberrations…support the hypotheses of an underlying organic pathology”. Drs Nancy Klimas and Mary Ann Fletcher et al noted the increase in numbers of a certain subset of B cells which are associated with autoimmune disease, concluding: “Significant immunological abnormalities have been recognised in this group of (ME)CFS patients. The possibility of an underlying immunodeficiency should be considered as a potential aetiological mechanism in the natural history of this syndrome” (The CFIDS Chronicle, November/December 1988). 1989 Susan Dorman commented on the study by Drs Paul Cheney and David Bell that was published in The Annals of Internal Medicine 1989:110(4), noting that average levels for IL-2 were significantly higher in (ME)CFS patients than for controls. The average serum IL-2 value for Dr Cheney’s patients was 56.2 units per millilitre and for Dr Bell’s patients the average serum IL-2 value was 55.5 U/mL. The average serum IL-2 for the controls was 1.4 U/mL. The normal range for the assay used is less than 5 U/mL. “This objective immune system abnormality may also help to legitimise the disease” (The CFIDS Chronicle, January/February 1989). The same issue noted the NIAID press release of 15th February 1989 which quoted Dr Stephen Straus: “Many physical and immunologic features of (ME)CFS cannot be explained by psychiatric illness”. It also noted that in 1988 congressional hearings, Dr Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director (the NIAID being a division of the NIH) reported that the basis of CFIDS involves immunological aberrations. The issue also carried an article by Dr Susan Levine from Mt Sinai Hospital Department of Immunology, New York, on “Allergy, Immune Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) Function, and Endocrinological disorders in CFIDS” in which she said: “Allergic manifestations are often seen hand in hand with certain immunodeficiencies, such as the absence of IgA and of specific IgG subclasses”. 1989 The UK ME Association published “Latest Research Findings” in March 1989: “Dr Peter Behan in Glasgow has made some remarkable new findings about ME….Though B cells appear normal, they are lacking a particular antigen (an antigen is a substance that stimulates the production of antibodies). This abnormality appears to be unique to ME. On measuring levels of Interleukin1 (a chemical messenger of the immune system) in ME sufferers and comparing them with normal controls…it was found that the average level in the ‘normal’ control group was 20 titograms per ml (sic -- ? picograms/pg per ml), while in people with rheumatoid arthritis it was up to 51. In many people with ME it was around 20,000 (this is not a typographical error). IL-1 is known to turn on the production of other chemical messengers….act on the liver to displace protein production (and) decrease the white cell count….It appears from these findings that many ME sufferers have abnormalities of the immune system. In the case of IL-1, so abnormal were the levels that the lab which was doing the measurements thought there had been a mistake”. 1989 The San Francisco (ME)CFS Conference was held on 15th April 1989; notably, Dr Jay Levy, a wellknown AIDS researcher at the University of California, informed healthcare professionals that CFIDS may be linked to the eventual development of multiple sclerosis (an autoimmune disease) and said “I think this is a new agent that is clearly attacking the immune system. And what you’re seeing is an immunological disorder that’s allowing a reactivation (of common viruses) very similar to what we saw in AIDS…. I point out that we’re not just examining something that is fatigue – we’re looking at something that gives immunological disorders….The agent is kept so far underground by the immunological reaction, you will never find it”. Several parameters of the www.investinme.org Page 35 of 108
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