Komaroff, Anthony L, Lipkin, W Ian · Trends in molecular medicine · 2021 · DOI
This article compares myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) with long COVID to see if they might share similar causes. The authors suggest that some people who develop long COVID symptoms—like persistent fatigue, cognitive problems, and pain—may experience similar biological problems to those seen in ME/CFS. Understanding these shared mechanisms could help doctors better treat both conditions.
This comparison is significant because long COVID has brought substantial research funding and clinical attention to post-viral fatigue syndromes, creating an opportunity to apply new findings to ME/CFS research. By identifying shared biological pathways between the two conditions, this work could accelerate understanding of ME/CFS pathogenesis and lead to therapeutic strategies applicable to both patient populations.
This editorial does not provide experimental evidence that ME/CFS and long COVID share identical causes—it proposes the hypothesis based on symptom overlap. The analysis does not prove causation for any proposed mechanisms, nor does it rule out distinct biological pathways in different patient subgroups. Long COVID is clinically heterogeneous, and this comparison may not apply equally to all affected individuals.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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