Immune Dysfunction and Chronic Fatigue
A recent study corollated certain immune system markers to the severity of fatigue in chronic fatigue syndrome patients. It showed that those who had increased RNase L activity, RNase L cleavage, and Elastase activity had greater fatigue. CFS researchers found patients to have an abnormality in an antiviral pathway. This led them to have abnormal size molecules of an enzyme called RNase L. This causes the enzyme to not be an effective antiviral.
These RNase L molecules can be cleaved to 1/2 their normal size (80 kDa protein into the putative 37 kDa fragment) by an enzyme called elastase. Elastase is an enzyme which is created during the inflammatory response (interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 release elastase).
So, certain inflamatory cytokines (interleukin-6 and interleukin-8) lead to the creation of more elastase, which cleaves the RNase L molecule and makes it ineffective as an anti-viral.
Some doctors believe that the drug Ampligen works on CFS patients by correcting the abnormal RNase L enzyme. It is still up in the air as to how effective this drug is and if it will even be approved. It is in the final stage of approval and may come out sometime this year.
