Judy Mikovits presentation at Autism One

[Guest guest]

Autism One, Chicago

Saturday, May 29, 3 pm

Judy Mikovits, PhD, presents:

XMRV

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) share

common clinical features including immune dysregulation, increased

oxidative stress, increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines and

chemokines, mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic active microbial

infections suggesting an underlying immune deficiency may be involved in

subgroups of CFS and ASD. We recently demonstrated the first direct

isolation of an infectious gammaretrovirus, XMRV, from the blood of CFS

patients. We have developed quantitative assays to detect XMRV

replication and infection in cell culture. Moreover, we found evidence

of XMRV infection in >85% of more than 200 CFS patients tested to date.

These data implicate a role for XMRV infection in the pathogenesis of

CFS. Because of the clinical similarities of CFS and ASD, we

hypothesized that XMRV infection may also be detected in subgroups of

ASD. This presentation will update the status of XMRV research, show

evidence of XMRV infection in ASD and discuss the implications of XMRV

infection in the pathogenesis of neuroimmune disease including ASD.