XMRV presentation -Dr. Mikovits & Annette Whittemore -Part 2

[Guest guest]

References:

*XMRV presentation -Dr. Mikovits &

Annette Whittemore* (part 1)

Help ME Circe, 18 January 2011

Co-cure: http://bit.ly/eqDtyc

``````````

http://bit.ly/h8r59k

Lannie in the Lymelight

Actively pursuing a new title. Soon to read:

" The girl who healed herself of CFS and Lyme "

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

PART 2:

1/17/11

XMRV presentation by

Dr. Judy Mikovits and

Annette Whittemore

For Part 1 CLICK HERE: http://bit.ly/g6tqzB

And now back to the story of XMRV.

What do we know about XMRV?

slide 1: see below

What we know about XMRV is that it integrates into

human tissue, demonstrating that it is a human

infection.

We can confirm it is NOT an endogenous virus to

humans. It is in fact a new human retrovirus.

However, how it got into humans is still unclear at

this time. We know that XMRV expression is

stimulated by androgens(hormones), cortisol and

inflammation.

And we know that it is an envelope gene that is

highly related to xenotropic, polytropic and SSFV

MLVs. This relation, or similarity, that the XMRV

envelope has is important.

We know in the animal world that Xenotropic,

polytroips and SSFV MLVs cause neuroimmune

disease and lead to tumors.

There is information available to us in these animal

models that allow for us to make very short leaps to

humans. It is common place in science to utilize

these similarities in animal models.

These do not usually point hysterically to animal

contamination, but are considered a starting point

or, as both Whittemore and Mikovits called it, *a

bridge* for researchers.

We also know a bit more related to biomarkers

common to those with XMRV.

slide 2: see below

I'm afraid I can't remember what ATL stands for, but

basically it's representing a category of people with

XMRV and comparing them to uninfected.

You'll notice extreme increase in Cytokine and

Chemokine Production.

There is also proof that XMRV infected patients have

fewer T-cell white blood cells.

slide 3: see below

There are further immune cell abnormalities for those

with XMRV.

slide 4: see below

As we've heard before, XMRV infected patients have

reduced Natural Killer cells. What does this actually

mean?

The CD56, the cell that manages the killing off of

bad things is significantly reduced. Therefore we

can't fight off infection as well as a healthy

counterpart.

The CD19, which creates B cells is severely reduced.

The CD19 is related to our production of immature

CD20, which has a direct correlation with tumors.

Mikovits did note some reported success published in

regards to Rituxan, a chimeric monoclonal antibody

against the protein CD20, which is primarily found on

the surface of B cells.

Rituximab is used in the treatment of many

lymphomas, leukemias and transplant rejection. It

has also been used off label for numerous

autoimmune disorders such as Rheumatoid Arthritis,

Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus to name just a few.

The last note is very important, XMRV infected

patients have clonal populations of gd T-cells. This is

important, as look at the next slide…

slide 5: see below

This slide depicts 20 CFS patients, all XMRV+(less 3

not tested), all Clonal TCRg positive (less 5 not

tested), and these are all of the types of

Lymphoma/cancer they have (the 3 suspicious means

they're showing signs of early stage).

Until the team of Lombardi, Mikovits, et al, no one

had a tool to detect XMRV. This is an image of how

they perform the lab work to find XMRV results.

slide 6: see below

The top half shows the original process performed for

the Science, 2009 published research.

Mikovits spoke of step 1 was Plasma. Step 2 was

Serology. Step 3 was to culture with the XMRV

prostate cancer cell lines and then let grow for 21-42

days, varying awaiting activation.

Then Step 4, a western blot of the cultured sample.

She noted that the lab can only handle 10 samples

through each stage at a time, as this process is so

labor intensive, hence the delay in results.

The bottom half with images under *Current* is the

process they're using and planning to have available

at VIP Dx by June 2011.

This is a new assay that cultures in 4-18 days. You

can see it is active, or ready when it turns green

(see white squares with blue and green dots).

In discussing tests, another very important take

away was that if you test positive you are positive.

If you test negative, they are not able to confirm it

is absolutely negative. Until there is further

understanding of the XMRV lifecycle, they can not

confirm this.

One last note, she mentioned that serology AND

culture were so very important to have run.

As a patient, I remember filling out the form for VIP

Dx. It is cheaper to only run serology, but that is not

recommended.

Mikovits noted *especially the sickest, get negative

antibody response, but positive culture.*

I'll cover treatment later, but she also noted that

once some of these especially sick patients went on

antiretrovirals they were able to create an antibody

response.

Prior to, their systems were just too weak. Creating

an antibody response would cause the patient to

then also report positive on serology.

slide 7: see below

You *never see these in healthy people!* exclaimed

Mikovits. She stressed how the positives and

negatives are SO CLEAR.

You can see in this slide above, sample 1197 is

clearly negative. Yet the rest are so clearly positive.

She showed an interesting example here. I

unfortunately wasn't quick enough with my camera to

nab the initial slide.

We first saw an initial antibody test where sample

1118 was negative. Then this slide was shown, after

more extensive culture testing, 1118 is clearly

positive.

This is where she stressed that 1118, like many,

many not specifically have XMRV, but most definitely

has an MRV.

Going back to my comment from Part 1, of the

Phylogenic Tree. There are multiple sequences these

patients can fall under. Some can even be positive

for more than one.

So where are we seeing XMRV? The disease

association seems limitless. It's showing up in every

corner of the neuroimmune world.

slide 8: see below

One private practice shared it's associations with

Mikovits and the WPI team. This practice started

testing its neuroimmune patients and soon found

they were treating XMRV positive patients with CFS,

Fibromyalgia, Chronic Lyme Disease, Multiple

Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, ALS, the list goes on.

I think it is safe to say this is a private practice for

adults, therefore we're not seeing the children with

autism in this example as we did with the family

profiles from Part 1 discussion.

Finally, it was noted that XMRV research has

concentrated around ME/CFS to date, but larger

studies on the presence of XMRV in these other

neuroimmune diseases are coming.

As a Chronic Lyme Disease patient, I found it very

interesting that much of this conversation seemed to

go back to Lyme again and again. During the

presentation and the Q & A session.

In the presentation they referenced a study where 65

Chronic Lyme Disease patients were tested for

XMRV, and 100% came back positive.

This was the most reactive group the WPI has seen.

That is a higher rate than ME/CFS! I thought Annette

Whittemore said it best:

*Every time we hear something new

about XMRV, we find a similar finding

within Lyme. It's amazing!*

So now what we've all been waiting for. Treatments

options!!

slide 9: see below

This first slide was a reminder of the study

performed by Singh, et al in vitro.

Three antiretrovirals showed promise amongst 45

compounds and 28 drugs approved for use in

humans. Those three include Zidovudine(most know

it as AZT), Tenofovir and Raltegravir.

The study showed all two-drug-combinations showed

efficacy against XMRV in vitro.

slide 10: see below

Given those results, Dr. Brewer, an infectious

disease specialist who's spent much of his career in

HIV but more recently in ME/CFS and XMRV, has used

2 and 3 drug combination antiretroviral treatments

with a CFS/XMRV+ patient sample of 25.

The results have been a mixed bag among the

patients on ARVs anywhere from 1-9 months.

The expected Herxheimer response occurred in some

as would be expected.

Symptom reduction has been reported, however

majority reported feeling *about the same.*

(I think it's very important to remember that these

25 patients have been on the AVRs anywhere from

1-9 months, and most likely on the shorter end of it

considering how young the AVR concept is for

XMRV...

if we think about antivirals, patients have to be on

them for much longer before they start feeling

better) Dr. Mikovits referenced Dr. Deckoff-,

along with Brewer's patients and a few others.

She has noticed a common theme of patients feeling

better around 6 months, followed by a return of all or

most symptoms. It sounds very similar to what

happens to many on antivirals.

I appreciated that she didn't stop here however. She

went on to ask herself and her team *how can we

add immune modulating supplements to keep up the

response beyond 6 months?*

That might be the next step we see in antiretroviral

(ARV) discussion.

slide 11: see below

Next, Mikovits covered her *other thoughts* beyond

Singh's and Brewer's experiences/findings with ARVs.

She recognized ARVs might be part of the picture,

but they do not address the entirety.

XMRV patients are still dealing with metabolic

abnormalities including oxidative stress, glutathione

depletion and DNA hypomethylation.

The concern is that all three of these are not only

abnormalities in XMRV patients, but they all increase

viral replication.

slide 12: see below

She first discussed how the restoration of

glutathione would reduce stress on XMRV patients

remarkably.

Next, she covered the need to restore and or improve

methylation. She suggested methofolate in B12, and

specifically mentioned supplements called Deplin and

Cerefolin NAC.

When discussing Immune Modulation, Mikovits

introduced a few points that were new to me.

She sees great promise in the newer treatment

options popping up such as GcMAF, Stem Cell

Therapy and Peptide T.

However she is concerned that they may *activate

the inactive reservoir XMRV.* Meaning there could be

some XMRV in our bodies that is still dormant, but

activation of our immune system might bring them

out.

However, she didn't stop there. She mentioned that

this might actually be a good thing. As ARVs are

more effective in HIV since HIV replicates

considerably more than XMRV, maybe one of these

will get XMRV replicating so the ARV has a job to

do.

Another area that will surely be discussed further.

She addressed Ampligen separately. This drug has

been around and documented more than the previous

three discussed.

Her comment on Ampligen was that it activates the

viruses in about 1/3 of the cases. So there again, it

could be a matter of hitting those with ARVs.

However, a little scary for those in the Ampligen

trials and are unable to take antivirals or

antiretrovirals while on Ampligen.

Net, net, more research needs to be done before she

can make recommendations on treatment as a

researcher.

Finally, what does the future look like for XMRV, and

for its patients?

slide 13: see below

The slide is pretty straight forward. It was not

hovered over for all that long. What I took away from

her discussion was that the question of being able it

isolate a polytropic was most interesting to

Mikovits.

Note this was only my opinion.

The subject I've stayed away from, that was

discussed intermittently, was the politics of it all.

Our government's involvement, or lack thereof.

I'd like to close with a quote from Mikovits, when

asked about the politics and all the second guessing

that has occurred regarding her research today.

Very confidently, and quickly she retorted, *I think

the politics will go away shortly.* Period. All she

said. There was a gasp in the room, and she moved

on as if she had just said *please pass me a glass of

water.*

This leads me to believe there is a research paper on

its way to being published that will close the case on

the contamination theories, the replication theories,

and hopefully the cause/effect query.

Just my take, but she seemed pretty darn

comfortable making that statement…:

*I think the politics will go away shortly.*

All I can say to that is, let's sure hope so!

````

**Please note, Lannie is not a scientist, doctor or

treating physician. She is a patient that has taken an

interest in her own health and while doing so is

attempting to share her learnings for the larger

patient community.

These are only her opinions and take-aways. If you

feel a piece of science has been incorrectly reported,

feel free to contact Lannie with a suggested change

– via the comments section or at

lannieinthelymelight@... – Thanks!

``````````

~jan van roijen - Attention:

because of technical problems, it is possible, that

some of the URLs below give a warning:

Stop

there might be a problem with the requested link

The link you requested has been identified by bit.ly

as being potentially problematic. We have detected

a link that has been shortened more than once, and

that may be a problem.

1) Bit.ly suggests that you

* Change the original link, and re-shorten with

bit.ly

* Close your browser window

* Notify the sender of the URL

2) Or, continue at your own risk to:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zaI4UJCrCNY/.............etc.

You can click then on the long URL without any

problem:

slide 1: http://bit.ly/e1t8aA

slide 2: http://bit.ly/i787vB

slide 3: http://bit.ly/dEwY25

slide 4: http://bit.ly/fNTgXQ

slide 5: http://bit.ly/hl42da

slide 6: http://bit.ly/e6V5na

slide 7: http://bit.ly/h3aWSH

slide 8: http://bit.ly/dWaqEp

slide 9: http://bit.ly/gN9PMz

slide 10: http://bit.ly/dLAflj

slide 11: http://bit.ly/h8SGHX

slide 12: http://bit.ly/hMlGED

slide 13: http://bit.ly/erD8a1