Li Gong-Hua, Han Fei-Fei, Kalafatis Efthymios, Kong Qing-Peng, Xiao Wenzhong
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Evolution and Animal Models, Key Laboratory of Healthy Aging Research of Yunnan Province, Kunming Key Laboratory of Healthy Aging Study, KIZ/CUHK Joint Laboratory of Bioresources and Molecular Research in Common Diseases, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China.
Computational Research Center for Complex Chronic Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Jun 25;26(13):6082. doi: 10.3390/ijms26136082.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID are complex multisystem conditions that pose significant challenges in healthcare. Accumulated research evidence suggests that ME/CFS and Long COVID exhibit overlapping metabolic symptoms, indicating potential shared metabolic dysfunctions. This study aims to systematically explore shared metabolic disturbances in the muscle tissue of patients. Utilizing genome-wide metabolic modeling, we identified key metabolic irregularities in the muscle of patients with ME/CFS, notably the downregulation of the alanine and aspartate metabolism pathway and the arginine and proline metabolism pathway. Further, in silico knockout analyses suggested that supplementation with aspartate (ASP) or asparagine (ASN) could potentially ameliorate these metabolic deficiencies. In addition, assessments of metabolomic levels in Long COVID patients also showed the significant downregulation of ASP during post-exertional malaise (PEM) in both muscle and blood. Consequently, we propose that a combination of l-ornithine and l-aspartate (LOLA) is a potential candidate to alleviate metabolic symptoms in ME/CFS and Long COVID for future clinical trials.
肌痛性脑脊髓炎/慢性疲劳综合征(ME/CFS)和新冠后综合征是复杂的多系统疾病,给医疗保健带来了重大挑战。积累的研究证据表明,ME/CFS和新冠后综合征表现出重叠的代谢症状,表明存在潜在的共同代谢功能障碍。本研究旨在系统地探索患者肌肉组织中的共同代谢紊乱。利用全基因组代谢建模,我们确定了ME/CFS患者肌肉中的关键代谢异常,特别是丙氨酸和天冬氨酸代谢途径以及精氨酸和脯氨酸代谢途径的下调。此外,计算机模拟敲除分析表明,补充天冬氨酸(ASP)或天冬酰胺(ASN)可能改善这些代谢缺陷。此外,对新冠后综合征患者代谢组水平的评估还显示,在运动后不适(PEM)期间,肌肉和血液中的ASP均显著下调。因此,我们提出,左旋鸟氨酸和左旋天冬氨酸组合(LOLA)是缓解ME/CFS和新冠后综合征代谢症状的潜在候选药物,可供未来进行临床试验。