Low-dose rapamycin alleviates clinical symptoms of fatigue and PEM in ME/CFS patients via improvement of autophagy: a pilot study.

ABSTRACT:

Snippets

BACKGROUND: mTOR activation is associated with chronic inflammation in ME/CFS. Previous studies have shown that sustained mTOR activation may cause chronic muscle fatigue by inhibiting ATG13-mediated autophagy. However, the therapeutic implication of this finding has not been established. Given that rapamycin is an mTOR inhibitor, this study aims to investigate whether low-dose rapamycin treatment improves autophagy markers and clinical symptoms of fatigue in ME/CFS subjects. This highlights the pivotal role of mTOR in the pathogenesis of ME/CFS.

Methods

We conducted a decentralized, uncontrolled trial of rapamycin in 86 patients with ME/CFS to evaluate its safety and efficacy. Low-dose rapamycin (6 mg/week) was administered, and core ME/CFS symptoms were assessed o

SUBMITTER: Ruan BT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12538759 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature