{"id":580891,"date":"2026-08-02T22:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/580891\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:47:24","slug":"genetic-study-of-fibromyalgia-reveals-a-surprising-link-to-huntingtons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/580891\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic Study of Fibromyalgia Reveals a Surprising Link to Huntington’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fibromyalgia is a disorder that can lead to symptoms like fatigue, widespread sensitivity, aches, and pains, as well as memory, mood, and sleep problems. At one time, clinicians and researchers debated whether fibromyalgia even existed. But thousands of people were vindicated when we started to learn more about the disorder, and find relevant biomarkers. Now scientists have conducted a genetic analysis of over 2.5 million people, including 55,000 fibromyalgia patients. This work, which was reported in Nature Medicine<\/a>, found genetic variants that are linked to fibromyalgia, and evidence that the nervous system is involved in fibromyalgia development.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Small variations in the sequences of human genes can have a wide variety of effects; some may be relatively harmless while others can lead to serious medical problems. This study found 26 regions of the genome that contain fibromyalgia-linked variants. Many of these regions contain genes that are connected to nerve and brain processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy studying the DNA of over 2 million individuals we can be confident that the findings are real and they suggest that fibromyalgia represents a problem in pain processing,\u201d said study coauthor Professor Frances Williams, a\u00a0 Professor of Genomic Epidemiology at King\u2019s College London.<\/p>\n

This work also showed that the genetic region that has the strongest association with fibromyalgia is in the huntingtin gene. Other genetic mutations in huntingtin can cause Huntington\u2019s disease. Another genetic variant that was connected to fibromyalgia is in the GPR52 receptor, which is known to control the levels of huntingtin.<\/p>\n

“This study provides important new insights into why some people develop fibromyalgia syndrome and identifies biological pathways that could lead to new treatment approaches. One of these pathways is already the focus of drug trials for Huntington\u2019s disease, raising the possibility that existing pharmaceutical research could eventually benefit people with fibromyalgia,\u201d added Williams. \u201cThe findings also help us better understand why fibromyalgia so often occurs alongside conditions such as anxiety and depression, bringing us closer to understanding the condition as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis work changes how we think about fibromyalgia at a fundamental level. For decades, patients have been dismissed or told their pain is simply psychological. Our findings confirm the condition has a clear biological basis,\u201d added co-corresponding study author Dr. Michael Wainberg, an investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Although this study will not immediately produce new diagnostic tests for fibromyalgia, it has provided important new insights for potentially creating those tests, or finding new ways to treat the condition.<\/p>\n

Sources: King\u2019s College London<\/a>, Nature Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fibromyalgia is a disorder that can lead to symptoms like fatigue, widespread sensitivity, aches, and pains, as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-580891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}