E2 ModeratePreliminaryPEM unclearObservationalPeer-reviewedMachine draft
Single-Center Study of Therapeutic Apheresis in 24 Male Patients from the MENA Region: Reduction of Lipids, Inflammatory Markers, Autoantibodies, and Implications for Fatigue, Genetics, and Aging.
Steenblock, Charlotte, Walther, Romy, Kok, Yannick et al. · Hormone and metabolic research = Hormon- und Stoffwechselforschung = Hormones et metabolisme · 2025 · DOI
Quick Summary
This study tested a blood-cleaning procedure called apheresis in 24 men from the Middle East and North Africa who had chronic fatigue and metabolic problems like diabetes or high cholesterol. The procedure removed harmful fats and immune molecules from their blood. After treatment, patients showed improvements in their blood work, with reduced inflammatory markers and autoantibodies that may contribute to fatigue.
Why It Matters
This research explores whether apheresis—a blood-filtering therapy—can reduce the inflammatory molecules and immune dysfunction implicated in ME/CFS and long-COVID. If validated in larger, controlled trials, it could offer a therapeutic avenue for patients in understudied populations where metabolic comorbidities worsen fatigue severity.
Observed Findings
- Significant reductions in plasma lipids following double filtration plasmapheresis
- Significant reductions in inflammatory markers post-apheresis
- Significant reductions in autoantibodies associated with long-COVID following treatment
- Genetic analysis revealed no mutations in monogenic lipid disorder genes (LDLR, APOB, APOE, PCSK9, LIPA, LDLRAP1) in the tested subgroup
- All genetically tested patients showed intermediate to high polygenic basis for elevated lipids
Inferred Conclusions
- Apheresis may alleviate symptoms in patients with long-COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome by reducing pathogenic autoantibodies and inflammatory markers
- Elevated lipid levels in this MENA population are primarily polygenic rather than monogenic in origin
- Implementing apheresis in the MENA region could improve health outcomes and life expectancy in patients with combined metabolic and fatigue disorders
Remaining Questions
- Did apheresis produce measurable improvements in fatigue severity, exercise tolerance, or quality of life using validated ME/CFS outcome measures?
- How do symptom improvements in male patients compare to potential treatment response in female patients?
What This Study Does Not Prove
This study does not prove apheresis is an effective treatment for ME/CFS or long-COVID, as it lacks a control group, relies on biomarker changes without documented symptom improvement metrics, and includes only male patients from one region. Reduction in inflammatory markers does not necessarily translate to sustained clinical improvement in fatigue or functional capacity. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation between biomarker changes and symptom relief.
Tags
Symptom:Fatigue
Biomarker:CytokinesAutoantibodiesBlood Biomarker
Phenotype:Long COVID Overlap
Method Flag:PEM Not DefinedWeak Case DefinitionNo ControlsSmall SampleMixed CohortSex-Stratified
Metadata
- DOI
- 10.1055/a-2678-7739
- PMID
- 40934950
- Review status
- Machine draft
- Evidence level
- Single-study or moderate support from human research
- Last updated
- 8 April 2026
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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