Sailing Ahead: Interim Update from 2017 Ramsay Class Member Prof. Jonas Bergquist
Reporting from a tall-ship cruiser, Prof. Bergquist (Uppsala University) tells us a bit more about the Ramsay-supported study he is navigating along with his co-Investigator Prof. Jonas Blomberg. The project is anticipated to wrap up at the end of this year.
Prof. Jonas Bergquist teamed up with Prof. Jonas Blomberg at Uppsala University and the Gottfries Clinic in Sweden to investigate an autoimmunity pathogenesis (onset and development) of ME/CFS. The researchers are looking to build on evidence from past studies of a possible link between infection-triggered ME/CFS and metabolic dysfunction. As part of this Ramsay project, Prof. Blomberg published the explanatory disease model motivating this research in Frontiers in Immunology.
Prof. Blomberg has already used serology (analyzing antibodies in blood) to look for indications of past infections in patients and the presence of autoantibodies (antibodies produced by the immune system that mistakenly target a person’s own tissues). For his part of the project, Prof. Bergquist has developed a method for in-depth screening of disturbances in the thyroid hormone regulation in ME/CFS patients. Thyroid hormones are involved in numerous physiological processes, including metabolic processes and immune function. Read the study abstract for their Ramsay project here and stay tuned for future updates.
