Neuroinflammation Research Projects

Type:: Ongoing research project (no peer-reviewed publications from this project at time of writing) Investigators:: Michael B. VanElzakker (Harvard), Marco Loggia, Eva Ratai Project Aims::

- Quantify glial cell activation in Long COVID and ME/CFS patients during cognitive tasks using dual PET-MRI
- Test whether brain PET neuroinflammatory signal correlates with systemic markers (blood NETs, microclots, SARS-CoV-2 proteins)
- Determine whether cognitive impairment severity correlates with the magnitude of glial activation

Relevance:: Documents that leading ME/CFS neuroimaging researchers are actively testing the neuroinflammation hypothesis of brain fog using state-of-the-art PET-MRI. Provides methodological context and a forward reference to forthcoming results. Consistent with prior PET studies showing elevated microglial TSPO binding in ME/CFS (Nakatomi et al. 2014). Certainty Assessment::

- *Status:* Ongoing (no published results)
- *Note:* Cite as ongoing research, not as evidence for a specific finding

References

Nakatomi, Yasuhito, Kei Mizuno, Akemi Ishii, Yasuhiro Wada, Masaaki Tanaka, Shusaku Tazawa, Kayo Onoe, et al. 2014. “Neuroinflammation in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: An ¹¹C-(R)-PK11195 PET Study.” Journal of Nuclear Medicine 55 (6): 945–50. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.113.131045.