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>>>> 5 January 2011 <<<<
Editorship : j.van.roijen@chello.nl
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January 1, 2011
XMRV: A Human Retrovirus with
Unknown Pathogenic Potential,
Not a Lab Contaminant
The recent proclamation that “XMRV is not the cause
of CFS,” came from an individual who did laboratory
experiments to show how PCR experiments can
become contaminated.
These results have nothing to do with the reality of a
disease or the methods used by those who have
detected XMRV in the blood and tissue of patients
found to be infected.
The positive studies, which cannot be explained
away by PCR experiments, are those which have
used multiple methods to show that XMRV is a live
replicating gamma retrovirus in human blood and
tissue samples using the gold standard methods of
viral isolation and antibody testing, in addition to
PCR.
Unsupported conclusions, such as the one offered by
the Wellcome Trust spokesman, often create
sensational headlines but do little to move science
forward.
Authors of the positive XMRV studies have been
extremely careful not to claim causality, realizing
that more scientific research is required to make
such a statement.
However, one fact still remains clear. Not one of the
negative studies changes the results of the scientific
research done by Lombardi et al., Lo et al., Urisman
et al., and Schlaberg et al.
The WPI-led scientific study, which rigorously ruled
out contamination, revealed high associations of
gamma retroviruses with physician-diagnosed CFS
patients, using four different methods of detection.
Recent commentary associated with the negative
research papers on XMRV, which used only one
testing method, claimed that these studies proved
that XMRV was not the cause of human disease.
On the contrary, what the authors of the
“contamination studies” confirmed is something that
most experienced scientists already know; there are
risks associated with using PCR if one does not
properly control for contamination.
They cannot conclude that other research groups had
the same problems or that “XMRV is not the cause of
CFS”.
Most significantly, the recent Retrovirology
publications failed to address the most important
pieces of scientific evidence of human infection in
the previous XMRV studies, including the fact that
XMRV positive patients produce human antibodies to
gamma retroviruses, XMRV integrates into human
tissues, and infectious virus has been cultured from
the blood of hundreds of patients with a diagnosis of
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and M.E.
Humans do not make antibody responses to mouse
DNA sequences from contaminated lab experiments.
The Retrovirology studies only point out that XMRV
research cannot be done in a mouse laboratory
without extreme caution and should not rely solely
on PCR methods.
Many researchers realize that the question of gamma
retroviruses and human disease cannot and should
not be dismissed lightly.
Retroviruses integrate into their host’s DNA causing
life long infection. Human retroviruses, such as HIV
and HTLV-1, are causative for immune deficiencies,
neurological disease and cancer.
Animal studies involving XMRV demonstrate that the
virus moves quickly away from the blood to various
organs within the body, such as the spleen, lymph
nodes, GI tract, and reproductive organs.
This helps to explain why the virus is difficult to
detect in blood even as it replicates in the tissues of
those infected.
Other studies using mouse models of Murine
Leukemia Virus infection, a close relative of XMRV,
have shown significant tissue involvement soon after
infection, resulting in many physical symptoms of
disease including cognitive deficits and immune
deficiencies, symptoms which are well documented in
patients with XMRV associated diseases.
Many anxious patients have asked, “Where do
we go from here?” and “Is this the end of XMRV
research?”
The answer to the second question is an unequivocal
“no.”
As to the first question, a quick check of the status
of ongoing research in various labs confirms that the
research groups who have been working on XMRV
over the past year are still hard at work developing
better assays to check the world’s blood supply for
the new retrovirus, finding correlates of immune
dysfunction, engaging in animal studies, extending
their findings to other groups of patients, and in
general, enthusiastically continuing their research.
They understand that novel scientific discoveries,
which threaten current dogma, will continue to be
challenged until the evidence can no longer be
denied.
For instance, there are still those few who question
the fact that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
It took Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Barry Marshall, 17
years and three trials in which he infected and then
cured himself of H-Pylori associated ulcers, before
the medical world would accept the fact that the
bacterium causes the disease.
Today we are engaged in a new battle to prove
that human gamma retroviral infections, such as
XMRV, are underlying pathogens in neuro-immune
diseases and untold cancers.
It is clear that more research must be done to clarify
the role of gamma retroviruses in human disease.
However, when a pathogen such as XMRV is found in
over 80% of those tested with the same diagnosis,
causality is clearly a reasonable hypothesis that
begs further scientific and medical research.
It is a known fact that important questions of
causality can often be answered through well
designed clinical trials. For those who have suffered
for years from these debilitating diseases, novel drug
trials cannot begin soon enough.
WPI’s collaborative research projects are
revealing the infectious and inflammatory nature
of neuro-immune diseases, providing strong
evidence against the use of CBT and exercise
therapy as rational “treatments” for those who
are ill.
Such knowledge underscores the urgent need for
much more private and federal funding of biological
research to provide diagnostic tests and effective
drug therapies for the millions who are ill, stop the
spread of infectious retrovirus(es), and end the
devastating cycle of disease.
Annette Whittemore
President Whittemore Peterson Institute
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