comment that there are concerns that CFS may have an infectious origin
and patients should not donate blood. When the time comes, patients
may choose to donate organs and other tissues to CFS specific tissue
banks rather than the general public as well since many viruses are
present in tissues and organs not just the blood.
OCTOBER 24, 2011, 11:39 AM ET
Scientists Say XMRV Poses No Risk To Blood Supply
By Amy Dockser Marcus
A team of scientists led by the American Red Cross found no evidence
of XMRV or related retroviruses in the blood of either donors or
recipients =97 but the organization still says that people with a
medical history of chronic fatigue syndrome should not donate blood.
There has been a swirl of controversy over whether people with CFS are
more likely to carry XMRV and whether the retrovirus might play a role
in the disease.
In August, the AABB, the umbrella group made up of centers and groups
that collect most of the nation=92s blood supply, recommended that until
the scientific questions were worked out, people with CFS should be
discouraged from giving blood. The Red Cross, which collects about 50%
of the nation=92s blood, bars patients with a medical history of CFS
from donating.
But just last month, a federal Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working
Group reported that nine labs testing for XMRV or evidence of XMRV
infection in the blood of CFS patients and healthy donors either
didn=92t find the retrovirus or couldn=92t reproduce their findings.
The authors of the 2009 paper that found a possible link between XMRV
and CFS have partially retracted their findings, citing contamination
in some of the blood samples.
The results of the new study, conducted with Abbott Diagnostics,
Gen-Probe Inc., and Yale University School of Medicine, were presented
on Saturday at the annual scientific meeting of the AABB.
The study sought to estimate the prevalence of XMRV or related
retroviruses in a large number of blood donors. The researchers
concluded that the prevalence was zero, says Susan L. Stramer,
executive scientific officer of the Red Cross and one of the authors
of the paper.
The researchers tested blood samples from 17,249 blood donors and
recipients for evidence of antibodies to XMRV and related
retroviruses, which would indicate a person had been exposed to the
viruses at some point. They also tested 1,763 donors and recipients
for XMRV RNA, which would indicate an active infection.
In order to test positive, donors or recipients must have antibodies
to three specific proteins that comprise the virus. The selection of
the proteins chosen for the antibody test was based on extensive prior
work done by Abbott and other researchers studying XMRV in macaque
monkeys, says John Hackett Jr., manager of emerging pathogens and
virus discovery programs at Abbott and an author of the paper.
While a very small number of blood donors and recipients were positive
for individual antibodies, no donor or recipient had all three XMRV
antibodies present. And further testing for XMRV RNA showed no
evidence of the retrovirus.
In the three recipients who tested positive for an individual
antibody, the donors who gave the blood did not, leading the
scientists to conclude that whatever the origin of the antibody, it
did not come from the transfusion, says Roger Y. Dodd, vice president
for research and development at the Red Cross and an author of the
paper.
Still, the Red Cross is unlikely to change its current recommendation
that those with CFS or a history of the disease should not give blood.
Stramer tells the Health Blog that even if XMRV is not the cause of
CFS, =93we still have concern that CFS may have an infectious origin=94
and that therefore they should not donate blood.
Further studies are still in the works, including an NIH-led study
looking at XMRV and related retroviruses and a study funded by the
Chronic Fatigue Initiative looking at other pathogens that may be
linked to the disorder.
When it comes to blood donation, CFS =93needs to be considered in its
own right, separate from the issue of XMRV,=94 Dodd tells the Health
Blog.
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