https://www.ncf-net.org/conference/2000.htm

BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER BREAKDOWN IN MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS

Behan W, Gow J.W, Curtis F. Department of Pathology and Neurology, Wester Infirmary, Glasgow, G11 6NT, Scotland.

ABSTRACT: A new approach to finding the cause of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME,CFS) has been suggested by recent work on the Gulf War Syndrome: scientists in Israel showed that severe stress, physical or mental, could produce disruption of the blood-braio-bamer (BBB) and detectable changes in brain function in experimental animals. They proposed that the same thing happened in army recruits.

We realised immediately tbe relevance of thir wark: the brain is usually protected by the BBB from agents present in the rest of the body. If the barrier is disrupted, small amounts of substances outside the brain, not expected to affect it, could produce brain injury.

In the case of ME our hypothesis is that a person already under physical or mental stress, is exposed to an agent (e.g. virus or toxin) which crosses the BBB, enters the brain, and produces long-term dysfunction manifest as fatigue and lack of concentration.

We have developed a rat model based on physical stress. Several rat strains were examined before we found that tbe most suitable are Brown Norway and PGVG. Characterisation of stress-induced alterations in neuronal function and cytokipe production is now underway.