Rituxan/MabThera may alleviate Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Research suggests that anti-cancer drug Rituxan/Mab Thera (Rituximab), from Roche, may help alleviate Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The cause of this syndrome, with symptoms whch include extreme exhaustion, has remained uncertain but this new study, led by Oystein Fluge and Olav Mella of Haukeland University Hospital in Norway, could answer this mystery. The study began when they noticed a patient's unexpected and marked recovery of CFS symptoms lasting for five months during and after cytotoxic chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease. A pilot study using the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody Rituximab in three CFS patients suggested that B-cells play a significant role in the ongoing clinical features of CFS, so they performed a randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled phase II study using Rituxan/Mab Thera or saline, in 30 CFS patients. They found that the Rituximab treatment was associated with significant but generally short-lived improvement in CFS symptoms. Since Rituxan/Mab Thera is a B-lymphocyte depleting agent, the results suggest that CFS/ME, which is often preceded by an infection, may be a form of autoimmune disease in which B-cells are important. The study is published in published in the online journal PLoS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026358 )