This interesting study found that skeletal #muscle cells of #ME/CFS patients showed a decrease in oxidative phosphorylation (a metabolic pathway used by #mitochondria to generate #energy). In simple terms, that caused the cells to have a dysregulated #metabolism. https://twitter.com/stenhelmfrid/status/1320792081800056835

2/ Not mentioned in the paper, but important to consider, is that most well-studied #viral + bacterial #pathogens “hijack” the metabolism of the cells they infect in a manner that can result in decreased oxidative phosphorylation (or similar changes in cell energy pathways).

3/ In simples terms, these #pathogens “hijack” cell metabolism to “pull” substrates out of the human mitochondrial energy pathways...and use the substrates (lipids, fatty acids, amino acids) for their own #nutritional and replication purposes!

4/ To better understand that trend check out these papers: 1) This one describes key mechanisms by which #viruses like EBV/CMV hijack host cell metabolism: https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-019-0678-9 2) This one explains how many bacterial pathogens can do the same: https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/febs.14446

5/ Ultimately what that means is that in conditions like #ME/CFS increasingly tied to host cells with altered #metabolic function...we should study if the #pathogens patients can harbor may be driving some of those metabolic changes!

6/ And does the trend matter for patients w/ Chronic #Lyme Disease? You bet! This paper is just one example of how #Borrelia dramatically alters the metabolic profile of the immune cells it infects: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877959X19302389