fulltext- http://www.virologyj.com/content/pdf/1743-422X-8-450.pdf
Research
Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus is Not Associated with
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Patients from Different Areas of the US in
the 1990s
Mir A Ali, Janet K Dale, Christine A Kozak, Raphaela Goldbach-Mansky,
Frederick W Miller, Stephen E Straus and Jeffrey I Cohen
Virology Journal 2011, 8:450 doi:10.1186/1743-422X-8-450
Published: 24 September 2011
Abstract (provisional)
Background
In 2009, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) was
reported in 67% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
compared to 4% of controls. Since then numerous reports failed to
detect XMRV in other cohorts of CFS patients, and some studies
suggested that XMRV sequences in human samples might be due to
contamination of these samples with mouse DNA.
Results
We determined the prevalence of XMRV in patients with CFS from similar
areas in the United States as the original 2009 study, along with
patients with chronic inflammatory disorders and healthy persons.
Using quantitative PCR, we initially detected very low level signals
for XMRV DNA in 15% of patients with CFS; however, the frequency of
PCR positivity was no different between patients with CFS and
controls. Repeated attempts to isolate PCR products from these
reactions were unsuccessful. These findings were supported by our
observations that PHA and IL-2 stimulation of peripheral blood
mononuclear cells from patients with apparently low levels of XMRV,
which induced virus replication in the 2009 report, resulted in the
disappearance of the signal for XMRV DNA in the cells.
Immunoprecipitation of XMRV-infected cell lysates using serum from
patients from whom we initially detected low levels of XMRV DNA
followed by immunoblotting with antibodies to XMRV gp70 protein failed
to detect antibody in the patients, although one control had a weak
level of reactivity. Diverse murine leukemia virus (MLV) sequences
were obtained by nested PCR with a similar frequency in CFS patients
and controls. Finally, we did not detect XRMV sequences in patients
with several chronic inflammatory disorders including rheumatoid
arthritis, Bechet's disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Conclusions
We found no definitive evidence for XMRV DNA sequences or antibody in
our cohort of CFS patients, which like the original 2009 study,
included patients from diverse regions of the United States. In
addition, XMRV was not detected in a cohort of patients with chronic
inflammatory disorders.
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