Patrick McGowan

Patrick O. McGowan, PhD, is an epigenetics researcher and Assistant Professor at the Centre for Environmental Epigenetics and Development at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Notable Studies
Dr. Patrick McGowan's epigenetics work has been supported by The Solve ME/CFS Initiative. Epigenetics is the research field that studies changes in the regulation of genes that are influenced by non-genetic or external factors, such as chemical imbalance, nutrition and the environment. The epigenome of approximately 100 ME/CFS patients and 100 healthy controls are being analyzed by McGowan's laboratory. Early results indicate that a number of epigenetic markers are associated with the response to glucocorticoids and certain ME/CFS symptoms. The epigenetic marks also appear to be distinct in immune cells from ME/CFS patients that show a robust response to the glucocorticoids. The results are preliminary, but suggest epigenetic markers may one day be helpful in classifying subtypes of the disease, and in identifying environmental and other non-genetic factors in ME/CFS symptoms.

Published Research
The first study to explore genome-wide epigenetic changes associated with ME/CFS. Findings included an increased abundance of differentially methylated genes related to the immune response, cellular metabolism, and kinase activity. Genes associated with immune cell regulation, the largest coordinated enrichment of differentially methylated pathways, showed hypomethylation within promoters and other gene regulatory elements in ME/CFS. These data are consistent with evidence of multisystem dysregulation in ME/CFS and implicate the involvement of DNA modifications in ME/CFS pathology.
 * 2017, Epigenetic modifications and glucocorticoid sensitivity in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) (FULL TEXT)"Abstract - 'Background: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating idiopathic disease characterized by unexplained fatigue that fails to resolve with sufficient rest. Diagnosis is based on a list of symptoms and exclusion of other fatigue-related health conditions. Despite a heterogeneous patient population, immune and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function differences, such as enhanced negative feedback to glucocorticoids, are recurring findings in ME/CFS studies. Epigenetic modifications, such as CpG methylation, are known to regulate long-term phenotypic differences and previous work by our group found DNA methylome differences in ME/CFS, however the relationship between DNA methylome modifications, clinical and functional characteristics associated with ME/CFS has not been examined. Methods: We examined the DNA methylome in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of a larger cohort of female ME/CFS patients using the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip Array. In parallel to the DNA methylome analysis, we investigated in vitro glucocorticoid sensitivity differences by stimulating PBMCs with phytohaemagglutinin and suppressed growth with dexamethasone. We explored DNA methylation differences using bisulfite pyrosequencing and statistical permutation. Linear regression was implemented to discover epigenomic regions associated with self-reported quality of life and network analysis of gene ontology terms to biologically contextualize results. Results: We detected 12,608 differentially methylated sites between ME/CFS patients and healthy controls predominantly localized to cellular metabolism genes, some of which were also related to self-reported quality of life health scores. Among ME/CFS patients, glucocorticoid sensitivity was associated with differential methylation at 13 loci. Conclusions: Our results indicate DNA methylation modifications in cellular metabolism in ME/CFS despite a heterogeneous patient population, implicating these processes in immune and HPA axis dysfunction in ME/CFS. Modifications to epigenetic loci associated with differences in glucocorticoid sensitivity may be important as biomarkers for future clinical testing. Overall, these findings align with recent ME/CFS work that point towards impairment in cellular energy production in this patient population.'"
 * 2014, DNA Methylation Modifications Associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Wilfred C. de Vega, Suzanne D. Vernon, Patrick O. McGowan)

Webinar

 * Aug 21, 2014 Epigenetics of ME/CFS sponsored by Solve ME/CFS Initiative