XMRV -Testing the Blood Supply

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Health Blog

WSJ's blog on health and the business of health

* January 20, 2011

XMRV: Testing the Blood Supply

By Amy Dockser Marcus

The controversy over whether XMRV is associated

with chronic fatigue syndrome or other diseases

continues, but a task force set up by a group that

collects most of the nation's blood supply is already

looking ahead.

In a report issued last week, the AABB

Interorganizational Task Force - comprised of blood

banks, government agencies, non-profits and

scientists and charged with examining the possible

threat to the blood supply - points out that the

scientific data on XMRV are *incomplete and

conflicting* and that it's still not known if blood

recipients need to be worried.

One of the key challenges, the report says, is trying

to figure out how the infection might work in blood

donors who turn out to be asymptomatic carriers of

XMRV.

The report notes that patients infected with hepatitis

C may not display any symptoms for decades, but

can then go on to develop cancer or other serious

diseases.

*If XMRV/MLV is pathogenic, a similar

long latency is conceivable,*

the report states.

The most pressing issue is to identify which blood

donors are infected with XMRV and then trace their

previous donations to the recipients to see if they

are also infected with the virus.

Some studies are already being planned to try to do

just that, says L. Stramer, executive scientific

officer at the American Red Cross and a member of

the AABB XMRV task force that issued the report.

Stramer tells the Health Blog that the Red Cross is

trying to get a handle on the prevalence of XMRV in

the blood supply.

One study will involve collecting donations from over

10,000 healthy people in six different geographic

areas to look for evidence of XMRV or related viruses

called murine leukemia viruses (MLVs), either

through the detection of antibodies or the presence

of small amounts of viral RNA.

The tests will be run by Gen-Probe and Abbott

Laboratories, two companies that have been

developing tests for XMRV and MLVs.

Sample collection will start soon.

The second study involves a linked donor-recipient

blood repository that the Red Cross maintains. The

group will be looking at 120 recipients who got blood

from over 4,000 donors.

Donors will be tested to see if they are positive for

XMRV or MLVs, and then recipients will be tested to

see if there was transmission of the virus through

transfusions.

The donor samples were collected in Connecticut.

The study is being done in collaboration with the

Yale-New Haven Hospital and is in the planning

stages right now, Stramer says.

A spokesman for Gen-Probe says the company

doesn't want to comment on the studies until results

are in.

Walt Kierans, divisional vice president of diagnostics

research at Abbott, confirmed that the company is

working with the American Red Cross on determining

XMRV prevalence in blood donors.

Despite the confusion in the field, the Red Cross's

Stramer says:

*It's time to move forward.*