Murine Gammaretrovirus Group G3 Was Not Found in Swedish Patients with
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia
Amal Elfaitouri1, Xingwu Shao1=E2=80=A0, Johan Mattsson Ulfstedt1, Shaman
Muradrasoli1, Agnes B=C3=B6lin Wiener1, Sultan Golbob1, Christina =C3=96hrm=
alm1,
Michael Matousek2, Olof Zachrisson2, Carl-Gerhard Gottfries2, Jonas
Blomberg1*
1 Section of Clinical Virology, Department of Medical Sciences,
University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden, 2 Gottfries Clinic AB,
Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg,
Gothenburg, Sweden
Abstract
Background
The recent report of gammaretroviruses of probable murine origin in
humans, called xenotropic murine retrovirus related virus (XMRV) and
human murine leukemia virus related virus (HMRV), necessitated a
bioinformatic search for this virus in genomes of the mouse and other
vertebrates, and by PCR in humans.
Results
Three major groups of murine endogenous gammaretroviruses were
identified. The third group encompassed both exogenous and endogenous
Murine Leukemia Viruses (MLVs), and most XMRV/HMRV sequences reported
from patients suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue
syndrome (ME/CFS). Two sensitive real-time PCRs for this group were
developed. The predicted and observed amplification range for these
and three published XMRV/HMRV PCRs demonstrated conspicuous
differences between some of them, partly explainable by a
recombinatorial origin of XMRV. Three reverse transcription real-time
PCRs (RTQPCRs), directed against conserved and not overlapping
stretches of env, gag and integrase (INT) sequences of XMRV/HMRV were
used on human samples. White blood cells from 78 patients suffering
from ME/CFS, of which 30 patients also fulfilled the diagnostic
criteria for fibromyalgia (ME/CFS/FM) and in 7 patients with
fibromyalgia (FM) only, all from the Gothenburg area of Sweden. As
controls we analyzed 168 sera from Uppsala blood donors. We controlled
for presence and amplifiability of nucleic acid and for mouse DNA
contamination. To score as positive, a sample had to react with
several of the XMRV/HMRV PCRs. None of the samples gave PCR reactions
which fulfilled the positivity criteria.
Conclusions
XMRV/HMRV like proviruses occur in the third murine gammaretrovirus
group, characterized here. PCRs developed by us, and others,
approximately cover this group, except for the INT RTQPCR, which is
rather strictly XMRV specific. Using such PCRs, XMRV/HMRV could not be
detected in PBMC and plasma samples from Swedish patients suffering
from ME/CFS/FM, and in sera from Swedish blood donors.
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