Lockwood, Mark B, Sung, Choa, Alvernaz, Suzanne A et al. · Biological research for nursing · 2024 · DOI
Kidney transplant patients often feel very tired and sick even after their new kidney works well. Scientists think the bacteria living in our digestive system might explain why this happens. Transplant medications can change these helpful bacteria, which may affect how our immune system, hormones, and brain work together. This article explores how fixing the gut bacteria might help transplant patients feel better.
This work is highly relevant to ME/CFS because it directly mentions chronic fatigue syndrome as a condition potentially mediated by gut microbiome dysfunction via the gut-brain-microbiota axis. Understanding how medications and microbial dysbiosis affect symptom burden could open new therapeutic avenues for ME/CFS patients, particularly those with comorbid gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms.
This editorial does not present original experimental or clinical data proving that microbiome changes cause symptom burden in transplant recipients or ME/CFS patients. It is a narrative review proposing mechanistic hypotheses rather than establishing causal relationships, and its conclusions are based on synthesizing existing literature rather than new empirical findings. The applicability of kidney transplant findings directly to ME/CFS pathophysiology remains speculative without dedicated ME/CFS microbiome intervention studies.
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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