{"doi":"10.3233/wor-203177","title":"Inclusion of family members without ME/CFS in research studies promotes discovery of biomarkers specific for ME/CFS","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The search for a biomarker specific for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) has been long, arduous and, to date, unsuccessful. Researchers need to consider their expenditures on each new candidate biomarker. In a previous study of antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) by natural killer lymphocytes, we found lower ADCC for ME/CFS patients vs. unrelated donors but ruled against low ADCC as a biomarker because of similar ADCC for patients vs. their family members without ME/CFS. OBJECTIVE: We applied inclusion of family members without ME/CFS, from families with multiple CFS patients, as a second non-ME/CFS control group in order to re-examine inflammation in ME/CFS. METHOD: Total and CD16A-positive 'non-classical' anti-inflammatory monocytes were monitored. RESULTS: Non-classical monocytes were elevated for patients vs. unrelated healthy donors but these differences were insignificant between patients vs. unaffected family members. CONCLUSIONS: Inclusion of family members ruled against biomarker considerations for the monocytes characterized. These pilot findings for the non-classical monocytes are novel in the field of ME/CFS. We recommend that occupational therapists advocate and explain to family members without ME/CFS the need for the family members' participation as a second set of controls in pilot studies to rapidly eliminate false biomarkers, optimize patient participation, and save researchers' labor.","journal":"Work","year":2020,"id":112819,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.966,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":431340,"name":"Alexander P. Sung","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":431339,"name":"Jennifer J.-J. Tang","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":431341,"name":"Michael Guglielmo","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":430383,"name":"Julie Smith‐Gagen","orcid":"0000-0001-9796-3409","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":329991,"name":"Lucinda Bateman","orcid":"0000-0002-9546-9922","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":431342,"name":"Doug Redelman","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":430384,"name":"Dorothy Hudig","orcid":"0000-0001-5952-208X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":534150,"name":"Keli Tokunaga","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":52,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:13:17.845093Z","pmid":"32568152","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}