JOURNAL OF IIMER May 2026 Session 4: Nervous System and Neuroinflammation Moderated by Dr Jon Brooks, University of Liverpool, UK Neurological symptoms are among the most disabling features of ME - cognitive impairment, unrefreshing sleep, sensory sensitivity and autonomic dysfunction are reported consistently across patient populations worldwide. Yet the biological mechanisms underlying these symptoms remain poorly understood. Neuroimaging, neuro-PET and postmortem brain research are now beginning to reveal structural and inflammatory changes in the central nervous system in ME and related post-viral conditions, offering the prospect of both biological explanation and, in time, therapeutic targets. The session is moderated by Dr Jon Brooks, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, whose research uses MRI-based neuroimaging techniques to study changes in the central nervous system in chronic pain and related conditions, including ME. Associate Professor Gwenaëlle Douaud of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford brings one of the most powerful datasets in neuroscience to bear on post-viral illness. As a core member of the UK Biobank imaging team, she has contributed to the analysis of brain scans from 100,000 participants. She led the landmark 2022 Nature study demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with measurable changes in brain structure - including greater reduction in grey matter thickness in the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus - findings with direct relevance to understanding the neurological basis of ME and long COVID. Her BRMEC15 presentation title is to be confirmed. Dr Denise Visser of Amsterdam UMC will present Neuro-PET data from postCOVID patients. Her imaging work has demonstrated significant neuroinflammation throughout the brain in patients with long-term post-COVID symptoms - providing some of the first direct in vivo evidence of widespread brain inflammation in living patients following COVID-19 infection. The parallels with ME are clear and the implications significant. Felipe Correa da Silva of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience works in postmortem brain research and neuroimmunology. At BRMEC15 he will present on microglial profiling in ME - examining the brain's resident immune cells directly in postmortem tissue from ME patients. This work offers a level of resolution into neuroinflammation in ME that has rarely been achieved before, and may help explain the cognitive and neurological symptoms that define the disease for so many patients. Session 5: Immune System - Primary and Secondary Immune dysfunction is one of the most consistently reported biological features of ME. Abnormalities have been identified across both innate and adaptive immune compartments - from natural killer cell dysfunction and T cell exhaustion to ion channel dysregulation and aberrant cytokine signalling. Whether these represent primary drivers of the disease or secondary consequences of another underlying process remains a central question in the field. This session brings together researchers working at the forefront of ME and post-viral immunology to examine the evidence from multiple angles. Invest in ME Research Page 26 of 35
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