t cells

Posted on Fatigue

Immune T cells become exhausted in chronic fatigue patients

Self-help tips to fight fatigue

According to a new Cornell University study, chronic fatigue syndrome creates conditions where pathogen-killing immune T cells become exhausted.

The study’s authors were aware that the immune system is dysregulated in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Still, they sought to identify which specific components were affected by the condition. Through a systematic exploration, they discovered that key CD8+ T cells exhibited one of the most significant signs of dysregulation. These cells showed evidence of continuous stimulation, which ultimately leads to an exhausted state—a phenomenon that has been extensively studied in cancer.

“This is an important discovery for ME/CFS because it allows us to examine T cells more closely. By investigating the exhausted cells, we hope to gain insights into what they are responding to,” said Andrew Grimson, a professor of molecular biology and co-corresponding author of the study. Maureen Hanson, a molecular biology and genetics professor, is the corresponding author.

“Therapies have been developed to reverse T cell exhaustion as treatments for cancer,” Hanson stated. “Our findings raise the question of whether these anti-exhaustion drugs could also be beneficial for ME/CFS.”

Hanson added that there is strong evidence for T cell exhaustion in ME/CFS, which has also been observed in long COVID.

“According to Hanson, immune cells from patients with ME/CFS showed elevated levels of surface proteins that are typical of exhausted cells. This exhaustion can result from prolonged exposure to a viral protein or ongoing stimulation of the immune system, a condition also observed in cancer patients.”

Future work will try to determine whether a virus is involved, which is currently not known. “We need to understand what is pushing them to this exhausted state,” Grimson said.

The team also plans to take cells from patients and controls, purify those cells, treat patients with drugs that reverse exhaustion, and see if the immune cells resume normal function. If CD8+ T cell exhaustion can be reversed, the next question is whether such reversal benefits a patient, as exhaustion can have protective qualities.

Posted on Multiple Sclerosis

T cells linked to myelin implicated in MS-like disease in monkeys

OHSU-led research suggests development of antiviral therapies to treat multiple sclerosis in people

Monkeys and autism

Scientists have uncovered new clues implicating a type of herpes virus as the cause of a central nervous system disease in monkeys that’s similar to multiple sclerosis in people.

The findings, published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, expand on previous work to understand the cause of the disease and potentially develop antiviral therapies. The work was led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University.

“This gives us a better understanding of the model,” said Scott Wong, Ph.D., senior author of the study and a scientist at the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute and the Oregon National Primate Research Center. “It draws more parallels to MS in people.”


The new study reveals the presence of two kinds of T cells, a type of white blood cell that’s a critical part of the body’s immune system. In this case, scientists determined the T cells were associated with an immune response involving the loss of myelin, the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers.

Myelin and nerve fibers become damaged in multiple sclerosis, which slows or blocks electrical signals required for us to see, move our muscles, feel sensations and think.

“We found that some of the T cell epitopes targeting myelin in these animals are identical to those found in humans with MS,” Wong said.

By linking these specific T cells to the loss of myelin, scientists say the new study opens the possibility of developing an antiviral therapy that could be especially useful for newly diagnosed cases of multiple sclerosis.

“If we found a unique virus that we believed was causing MS, then you could in theory come up with a vaccine against that virus,” said co-author Dennis Bourdette, M.D., professor emeritus and former chair of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine.

The work builds on a chance discovery in the colony of Japanese macaques at the primate center.

In 2011, scientists at OHSU published research identifying a group of monkeys at the primate center with a naturally occurring disease known as Japanese macaque encephalomyelitis. Since then, scientists have been working to understand the cause and progression of the disease in the macaques with an eye toward applying possible therapies in people.

The latest study points toward developing strategies to combat the disease leveraging the body’s immune response.

“If we can understand how it’s doing it, we may be able to test vaccine strategies,” Wong said. “I’m not sure we can prevent virus infection, but we may be able to prevent virus-associated disease.”