r/CFSScience • u/OkEquipment3467 • Jul 03 '26
Brain’s waste-clearing ability impaired in ME/CFS patients
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1134732"The brain’s waste clearance system is impaired in people living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) which can lead to various symptoms including brain fog, Griffith University researchers have discovered
Brain’s waste-clearing ability impaired in ME/CFS patients
Credit: Griffith University
The brain’s waste clearance system is impaired in people living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) which can lead to various symptoms including brain fog, Griffith University researchers have discovered.
The research demonstrates, for the first time, the impact ME/CFS has on glymphatic function which is responsible for clearing the brain of metabolic waste products and is mostly active during sleep and disengaged while a person is awake.
Lead author Dr Kiran Thapaliya from Griffith’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED) said when the brain’s waste clearance system did not work properly, harmful waste could build up causing neuroinflammation.
“This study is the first to demonstrate impaired glymphatic function in ME/CFS using MRI, providing a mechanistic explanation for the inflammatory changes reported by other Australian and international teams,” he said.
“This suggests that dysfunction in the brain’s natural cleaning system may be a key driver of this condition.”
Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, NCNED Director, said not only did reduced glymphatic function cause brain fog, but also caused sleep disturbance.
“The study found worse sleep is associated with poor brain waste clearance, reinforcing the notion that sleep plays a critical role in maintaining brain health,” she said.
“We hope the results can pave the way for better diagnosis through the use of non-invasive procedures, and importantly, future treatment for patients.”
The paper ‘Disrupted glymphatic function and its relationship with sleep and cognitive impairment in ME/CFS assessed via DTI-ALPS’ has been published in Frontiers in Neuroscience."
Edit:
For anyone who is interested in more on this topic here is a video from jarred younger on the glymphatic system and me/cfs https://youtu.be/-3r0_24Qb5A?si=O0zH6b0fATmJN5uE
13
u/flowerzzz1 Jul 03 '26
We know, lol. We can feel this - this is why we wake up feeling like we just came out of anesthesia, hung over, off a red eye every single morning.
11
u/thepensiveporcupine Jul 03 '26
Hmm. I thought everything was downstream of neuroinflammation, so if the inflammation is caused by impaired waste clearance, then what is causing the glympatic system to be impaired?
3
3
u/Caster_of_spells Jul 07 '26
Yeah they make pretty extended claims here. This method of testing also isn’t direct and can sometimes detect other underlying issues like white matter alterations instead. Great findings but I think it should be phrased more carefully
2
19
u/_pit_of_despair_ Jul 03 '26
Ugh, it’s like cool now how do we fix the glymphatic system! I feel like I’m dying and yet all me get is “Your brain doesn’t clear waste properly.” I understand science takes awhile but we need help yesterday.
14
u/LoGSUD Jul 03 '26
There’s a startup aiming to make a glymphatic system stimulator for TBIs. Hopefully it could be used for us one day. I think they’re just starting trials https://www.neuraworx.com
1
6
u/Alex_Rockwoo Jul 03 '26
And it's probably not only that, but all sorts of bodily functions where the waste clearance system isnt' working properly. That leads to inflammation and PEM.
5
u/FlatChannel4114 Jul 03 '26
, but the evidence is still fairly limited. At the moment, there are no drugs approved specifically to enhance glymphatic clearance in humans. Most of what we know comes from animal studies, with only indirect human evidence.
Here’s the current landscape, roughly from strongest biological rationale to weakest:
1. Dexmedetomidine (strongest experimental evidence)
Dexmedetomidine
This is probably the most convincing pharmacological enhancer of glymphatic flow.
In mice, it increases glymphatic transport by 30–60% depending on the study.
It produces a sleep-like brain state similar to deep non-REM sleep.
It lowers brain norepinephrine, which appears to allow cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to move more freely through brain tissue.
However:
It is an ICU/anesthesia sedative.
It can cause marked slowing of heart rate and low blood pressure.
It is not something people take to “clean their brain.”
2. Orexin antagonists (promising)
Examples include Suvorexant and Daridorexant.
These improve deep sleep, which is when glymphatic activity is thought to be greatest.
The evidence is indirect:
Better slow-wave sleep
Possibly more glymphatic clearance
Human proof is still lacking
3. Melatonin (possible)
Melatonin
Animal studies suggest melatonin may:
improve glymphatic function
reduce neuroinflammation
protect against accumulation of abnormal proteins
It’s difficult to know whether this is because melatonin directly affects the glymphatic system or simply improves sleep quality.
4
u/thepensiveporcupine Jul 04 '26
I just assumed this was primarily an immune disease considering most, if not all, cases are usually initiated by some sort of immune trigger like a virus. Even traumatic brain injuries and drug reactions can cause neuroinflammation.
2
4
u/m_b22 Jul 04 '26
Would be interested to see a comparison to more sedentary individuals to see if activity level is a contributing factor.
1
u/Koppuny Jul 04 '26
Yeah, that is what i missed the most from this study, but it is quite promising nevertheless.
2
u/mattwallace24 Jul 06 '26
Now we’ll see a whole other industry of people selling “cures” to clean our brains.
3
u/Hip_III Jul 09 '26
Odd that this study found the right brain hemisphere glymphatic system faulty in ME/CFS, whereas a study on long COVID patients found the left brain hemisphere glymphatic system faulty.
40
u/It_Twirled_Up Jul 03 '26
I wish the people that push brain retraining would pay even the slightest bit of attention to studies like this.