The Guardian Newspaper – Fibromyalgia Study- One The Year’s Top 10 Science Stories, Chosen By Scientists- click here for full article
We are reaching out to you to support us and be part of this game changing research and bring hope to the millions of Fibromyalgia sufferers.
Fibromyalgia (FMS) is a debilitating condition and ultimately can be life-changing not only for the sufferer but also their family. It is an under-recognised condition that causes whole body sensitivity and pain, sleep difficulties, and chronic fatigue. Way before any quality research was done on this condition, many patients would be dismissed and stigmatised for the limits they inadvertently have to place on their day-to-day lives. It is now widely accepted to be a genuine condition that affects the way the body processes external stimuli.
Despite acceptance that there is a biological basis to fibromyalgia, there has sadly not been much advancement in the development of effective treatments. The few drugs prescribed for the condition are often ineffective and come with intolerable side effects that add to the sufferer’s daily problems. Many patients buy into private alternative therapies that they can hardly afford, to find they sometimes do not work for long, if at all. In today’s best practice, patients are supported in managing their pain, in coming to terms with their losses and in trying to make the most of what they have.
This Is Not Good Enough. We Can And Must Do Better.
We have found that a faulty immune system plays a key role in orchestrating the disease. This is an exciting time for the fibromyalgia community. It opens up the possibility that one or more of the many treatment options already available for immune-mediated disease can have a real impact in fibromyalgia too.
Professor Andreas Goebel’s is the Director of the UK Pain Research Institute, and a highly respected researcher in the field: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/translational-medicine/staff/andreas-goebel/. Together with Prof. David Andersson and Prof. Camillla Svensson his team has shown that the immune protein ‘immunoglobulin G’ ( or ‘IgG antibodies’) which we all have in our blood is changed in FMS. When transferred from FMS patients to mice, the patients’ IgG will trigger FMS signs. This ground-breaking work has conclusively indicated that dysregulation of the immune system holds the key to understanding and curing fibromyalgia [Goebel et al., JCI 2021; 131(13)]; https://www.jci.org/articles/view/144201/pdf. Very recently these researchers, together with a Team at John’s Hopkins University have found that the harmful effect of IgG is mediated by mast cells. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.652596v1
To translate this work into an actual opportunity to develop effective treatment and diagnostic tests, our teams require more funding support. This work is essential to progress. In the initial phase we hope to raise £1.5-2M, to enable one new therapeutic treatment trial for FMS, and the development of prognostic and diagnostic blood tests. The clinical trial will test removing the harmful immune offender, IgG, from the blood. It will use already-known treatments such as immune adsorption and plasma exchange, with good safety record in other immune-related conditions; these methods have just not yet been used in FMS trials.
Clearly in an ideal world the government should fund this but if past experience is anything to go by this will take years to arrive and some FMS patients simply cannot wait that long. The hard reality is that without donations this research isn’t getting funded anytime soon.
Scan the QR Code to Donate Now To Give The Fibromyalgia Community A Brighter Future
Or To donate by Bank Transfer please use the following details:-
HSBC Bank plc
99-101 Lord Street
Liverpool
L2 6PG
Account name – Pain Relief Foundation
Sort Code: 40 – 29 – 08
Account No: 84075366
Reference: FMS New Treatments
IBAN – GB38HBUK40290884075366
BIC – HBUKGB4105D
To donate by Cheque :-
If you wish to send a cheque, you can post them along with a covering letter quoting reference
FMS New Treatments to the below address:
Pain Relief Foundation
Clinical Science Centre
University Hospital Aintree
Lower Lane
Liverpool
L9 7AL