Viral risk factors in ME/CFS

Viral triggers of immune response in ME/CFS have long been speculated but remain poorly understood. Germline endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) and somatic viral infections both have significant impacts on immune response and have been studied for years; however, the previous studies mainly focused on commonly tested viral pathogens or several known ERV candidates. Not surprisingly, none has been proven to be common to ME/CFS patients. A comprehensive analysis of the full spectrum of ERVs and the virome is likely to change our understanding of the roles of ERVs and viral infections in ME/CFS. This proposal is aimed to develop novel algorithms to investigate the contributions of genome-wide ERVs and the human virome to ME/CFS.