The goal of this observational study is to assess the clinical response and the effect of autophagy function in patients before, during and throughout oral low dose sirolimus (rapamycin) therapy. The main questions this study aims to answer are: * Does rapamycin reduce the overall symptom burden in this patient population and does it improve the quality of life? * Does rapamycin change mTOR driven autophagy deficits observed in a subset of patients? Participants will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires and quality of life instruments before starting rapamycin therapy prescribed by their physician and throughout their course of treatment. Study blood samples will be collected before starting therapy and throughout the course of treatment to assess serological markers of autophagy function.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
150
Once weekly oral rapamycin
Center For Complex Diseases
Palo Alto, California, United States
The Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota, United States
Sierra Internal Medicine
Incline Village, Nevada, United States
Bateman Horne Center
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Center For Complex Diseases
Seattle, Washington, United States
The Short Form (36) Health Survey
The SF-36 consists of eight scaled scores, which are the weighted sums of the questions in their section. Each scale is directly transformed into a 0-100 scale on the assumption that each question carries equal weight. The lower the score the more disability. The higher the score the less disability i.e., a score of zero is equivalent to maximum disability and a score of 100 is equivalent to no disability.
Time frame: 1 year
Multidemensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI)
The MFI is a 20-item scale designed to evaluate five dimensions of fatigue: general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced motivation, reduced activity, and mental fatigue.
Time frame: 1 year
The Bell Activity Scale
The Bell CFIDS Disability Scale is described in the book, The Doctor's Guide to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Understanding, Treating and Living with CFIDS (Bell 1995). This scale assesses functional ability in adult ME/CFS patients. Eleven statements describe patient status such as level of symptoms at rest, level of symptoms with exercise, activity level, and ability to perform work, travel and self care.
Time frame: 1 year
Change in mTOR activation panel and blood markers involved in autophagy function.
Change in concentrations of phosphorylated autophagy-related gene proteins in blood
Time frame: 1.5 year
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