Klimas made it obvious in 1990
1990 "The results suggest that (ME)CFS is a form of acquired immunodeficiency"
(Nancy Klimas, Professor of Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine: Director of Immunology; Director of AIDS research and Director of the Allergy Clinic at Miami: Immunologic Abnormalities in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 1990:1403-1410)
Immunologic abnormalities in chronic fatigue syndrome
The chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), formerly known as chronic Epstein-Barr virus syndrome, is a clinical state of some complexity and uncertain etiology. In order to characterize in a comprehensive manner the status of laboratory markers associated with cellular immune function in patients with this syndrome, 30 patients with clinically defined CFS were studied. All of the subjects were found to have multiple abnormalities in these markers. The most consistent immunological abnormality detected among these patients, when compared with normal controls, was low natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity. The number of NK cells, as defined by reactivity with monoclonal antibody NKH.1 (CD56), was elevated, but the killing of K562 tumor cells per CD56 cell was significantly diminished. Lymphoproliferative responses after stimulation with phytohemagglutinin and pokeweed mitogen were decreased in most patients when compared with those in normal controls, as was the production of gamma interferon following mitogen stimulation. Lymphocyte phenotypic marker analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes showed that there were significant differences between patients with CFS and controls. There was an increase in the percentage of suppressor-cytotoxic T lymphocytes, CD8, and a proportionally larger increase in the number of CD8 cells expressing the class II activation marker. Most patients had an elevated number of CD2 cells which expressed the activation marker CDw26. The numbers of CD4 cells and the helper subset of CD4+CD29+ cells in patients with CFS were not different from those in controls. There was, however, a significant decrease in the suppressor inducer subset of CD4+ CD45RA+ cells. The number of B cells, CD20 and CD21, were elevated, as were the numbers of a subset of B cells which coexpressed CD20 and CD5. The patterns of immune marker abnormalities observed was compatible with a chronic viral reactivation syndrome.
1991 The NK (natural killer) cell is a very critical cell in (ME)CFS because it is clearly negatively impacted. The most compelling finding was that the NK cell cytotoxicity in (ME)CFS was as low as we have ever seen it in any disease. This is very, very significant data. (In (ME)CFS) the actual function was very, very low --- 9% cytotoxicity: the mean for the controls was 25, In early HIV and even well into ARC (AIDS related complex, which often precedes the fully developed condition), NK cytotoxicity might be around 13 or 14 percent. (ME)CFS patients represent the lowest cytotoxicity of all populations we ve studied (Nancy Klimas, Professor of Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine; Director of Immunology; Director of AIDS research and Director of the Allergy Clinic at Miami. Presentation: Immunological Markers in (ME(CFS. The CFIDS Association Research Conference, November 1990, Charlotte, North Carolina. Reported in CFIDS Chronicle, Spring 1991; pp 47-50)