XMRV -No Contamination, Still No Replication!

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International M.E. Association

XMRV -

No Contamination,

Still No Replication!

Since the publication of Lombardi et al. in Science

magazine over sixteen months ago, the ME

community has watched one group after another

attempt to refute the finding of an association

between ME, and the gammaretrovirus XMRV.

Even with the publication of a confirmatory study, Lo

et al, in August 2010, the story fed to the media and

public, was that polytropic sequences must be

considered to be a separate retrovirus to XMRV.

Yet, XMRV is a polytropic/xenotropic hybrid, and

therefore Lo et al. did indeed confirm the findings of

the original paper.

Others are now attempting to claim that the findings

must be the result of contamination. They have

proposed that this contamination resulted from a

prostate cancer cell line called 22Rv1, which is known

to be infected with what looks like XMRV.

Yet, Lombardi et al and Lo et al did not use this cell

line, the labs involved have never worked with mice,

and mouse contamination has been rigorously ruled

out in their samples, both by the authors and the

CDC.

These researchers believe that as the cell line has

been passaged through mice, XMRV was generated

from two mouse viruses, a process called

recombination. Using a new assay (test), they

examined several generations of the cell line for

XMRV, and were unable to detect XMRV in the earlier

generations.

However, it is unknown whether those assays were

capable of detecting XMRV in those tissues if

present.

Furthermore, the later passages were stimulated

with testosterone, which would raise the titre to a

level where less clinically sensitive assays could

detect XMRV.

This research has therefore confirmed that XMRV is a

retrovirus found in humans. These viruses are known

to cause such pathology in other hosts; there is no

reason to suspect that they do not do so in

humans.

The IMEA is therefore clear that research and funding

are urgently needed. We are calling on all

Governments to prioritise XMRV research and ban

people with ME from donating blood.

In particular, labs that have proven assays, such as

the Whittemore Institute in the USA and

IrsiCaixa in Spain, should now be supported with

funding and assistance to quickly develop better and

more reliable detection methods, and to investigate

the pathogenesis and the potential need for

treatment of this retrovirus in not only the diseases

currently found to be associated with XMRV, but in

those also suspected to have a retroviral cause.

Delay is unacceptable considering the potential

consequence this retrovirus may have on the human

population.