The IiME 2014 Conference report by Rosamund Vallings is available to read at http://www.investinme.eu/report.html DVDs of the conference (and past conferences) are available from IiME http://www.investinme.eu/2014%20Conference%20DVD%20Order.html
“The main conference was opened by Dr Ian Gibson.
The first speaker was Prof Jonathan Edwards (London) who spoke about the lessons learnt for ME from his lifelong study of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)…….
Angela Vincent (Oxford, UK) spoke about the searches for antibodies in neurological diseases and posed the question as to whether they could be similar to what may be happening with ME. She talked first about the classical auto-immune disease Myasthenia Gravis (MG)……..
Jonas Blomberg (Uppsala, Sweden) discussed infection-induced auto-immunity in ME. His lab uses a multiplex technique, and they are able to look at hundreds of different antibodies at a time……
Mady Hornig (New York, USA) addressed her work on Pathogen Discovery. She has looked at the “3-Strike Hypothesis” – genes, environment and timing…….
Carmen Scheibenbogen (Berlin, Germany) discussed the role of EBV in ME. She described how a subset have disease onset associated with EBV. Then there may be recurrent fever and nodes and the patient describes the illness as if infection is ongoing……
Prof Simon Carding (Norwich, East Anglia) looked at the role for leaky gut and intestinal microbiota in the pathophysiology of ME……
Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik (Gold Coast, Australia) updated us on the current knowledge of immunological biomarkers in ME. She initially described the different cells in the innate (dendritic and NK cells) and adaptive (NKTcells, T cells, B cells and γδT cells) immune systems…..
James Baraniuk (Washington, USA) discussed his work with MRI and victims of Gulf War Illness (GWI). He has explored a model sub-group dating back to 1990-91. Many had experienced acute illness, possibly as a result of sarin exposure. There has been chronic progression of illness over 20 years. Up to 25% of Gulf War veterans were affected……
Julia Newton (Newcastle, UK) focused on the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)and its relationship to ME. She explained that there is overlap between the ANS and many diseases associated with fatigue. The experience of fatigue is the same in many diseases. She described the ANS, and said that dysautonomia in ME is likely. The fatigue in 89% of those with ME may be due to Orthostatic Intolerance (OI)…..
Amolak Bansal (Surrey, UK) discussed diagnosis and treatment of ME within the NHS. His initial comments mentioned that eventually the current exclusion criteria may go on to be included, and that if anything the new ICC can make things more complicated. His team use the Sutton CFS/ME scoring system, needing 8 out of 13 points to make a diagnosis……
Andreas Kogelnik (California,USA) went on to discuss the diagnosis and treatment of ME in the USA. He stressed that this is not a psychiatric disease……
Julian Blanco (Barcelona,Spain) gave an external view of ME research strategies……”
Ros Vallings ends by saying, “Things are moving forward rapidly, and while much work lies ahead, the new directions and science have become increasingly exciting.”