Supervised selection of single nucleotide polymorphisms in chronic fatigue syndrome

The different ways for selecting single nucleotide polymorphisms have been related to paradoxical conclusions about their usefulness in predicting chronic fatigue syndrome even when using the same dataset.

To evaluate the efficacy in predicting this syndrome by using polymorphisms selected by a supervised approach that is claimed to be a method that helps identifying their optimal profile.

We eliminated those polymorphisms that did not meet the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Next, the profile of polymorphisms was obtained through the supervised approach and three aspects were evaluated: comparison of prediction accuracy with the accuracy of a profile that was based on linkage disequilibrium, assessment of the efficacy in determining a higher risk stratum, and estimating the algorithm influence on accuracy.

A valid profile (p<0.01) was obtained with a higher accuracy than the one based on linkage disequilibrium, 72.8 vs. 62.2% (p<0.01). This profile included two known polymorphisms associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, the NR3C1_11159943 major allele and the 5HTT_7911132 minor allele. Muscular pain or sinus nasal symptoms in the stratum with the profile predicted V with a higher accuracy than those symptoms in the entire dataset, 87.1 vs. 70.4% (p<0.01) and 92.5 vs. 71.8% (p<0.01) respectively. The profile led to similar accuracies with different algorithms.

The supervised approach made it possible to discover a reliable profile of polymorphisms associated with this syndrome. Using this profile, accuracy for this dataset was the highest reported and it increased when the profile was combined with clinical data.