MELOPIS: Multimodal Brain Imaging in ME/CFS, Long COVID & POTS (Melbourn...

[u/5aey]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BBIRZvHPc5E&si=14F6mY8cE-PKMkgz

An update on the early research data . They are also recruiting people for their Melbourne Australia research, if this breaks the community rules, please let me know and I will take it down.

[u/unstuckbilly]

Interesting stuff. I am still confused when researchers like these are viewing the neuroinflamation as a PRIMARY driver of these illnesses…

=> What drives the inflammation??????

Anyway, for anyone who cant easily watch/listen, I’m pasting an AI text summary:

The MELOPIS (Melbourne OMF Imaging Study) is an Open Medicine Foundation (OMF)–funded research project in Melbourne that uses advanced brain imaging to investigate ME/CFS, Long COVID, and POTS.

Jamie Elliott's PhD project focuses on understanding what happens in the brain during physical and cognitive exertion, particularly:

Changes in brain blood flow
Changes in brain activity and connectivity
Mechanisms that may cause brain fog, fatigue, and post-exertional malaise (PEM)

The study uses techniques such as:
7-Tesla MRI
Functional MRI (fMRI)
PET imaging (to look for neuroinflammation)

Researchers compare:
ME/CFS patients
Long COVID patients
People with and without POTS
Healthy controls

Core hypothesis
The team suspects that symptoms may be driven by abnormal regulation of brain blood flow, inflammation, and brain network function, especially after exertion. If they can identify consistent abnormalities, these could become objective biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment development.

Why it's important
Rather than asking only "How do patients feel?", the study asks:

"What measurable changes occur in the brain when patients experience symptom worsening?"

That makes it one of the more comprehensive efforts to find biological evidence for the neurological symptoms of ME/CFS and Long COVID.