CFS Info: Does XMRV or MLV Cause It?

In an effort to provide you with the most up-to-date CFS info, opinions and research, check out CFS Central that yesterday reported the notable findings of the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) paper on CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and XMRV (Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus Related Virus).

It also shed light on a new term that we can begin to learn about, MLV (Murine Leukemia Virus).

But let’s talk about this issue before you leave the Health Matters Show blog. What do you really think? Do you believe there is or might be a connection between CFS and MLV? Let’s explore the waters of NIH’s principle researcher, Dr. Harvey Alter and his work.

There are only 3 retroviruses known to man at this time: HIV, Hepatitis C and now XMRV. The PNAS study published Monday aimed at determining any relationship between CFS and XMRV, however, it did not find it in the patient or control population. Instead the researchers discovered kissing cousins of Murine Leukemia Virus in 86.5 percent of 37 patients and nearly 7 percent of 44 controls.

For now these MLVs are being referred to as CFS Type 1, CFS Type 2, CFS Type 3 and a fourth one that was only found in one control subject. Time and more research will determine the importance of this work and whether we can ascertain a cause and effect relationship between MLV and CFS. There will probably be controversy and confusion for awhile. We need to understand the implications of these findings for the 1 million US-affiliated CFS population and the 17 million afflicted people worldwide.

…doesn’t mean that this retrovirus doesn’t cause CFS… Since the host’s DNA becomes inextricably intertwined with a retrovirus, infection lasts for life. Besides, as noted in both the Science study and the PNAS study, finding this retrovirus in the blood is difficult. In fact, Emory University scientists who injected XMRV into macaques this past spring reported that even when the virus was undetectable in the blood, it thrived in the reproductive organs as well as the spleen, gut, bladder, lung, liver and lymph nodes.

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If you didn’t take the time to do it yesterday, I encourage you to check out all of this great CFS info and the full article at CFS Central by Mindy Kitei. (*The address is hyperlinked above- just click on it.) It is an accurate, well-written reporting. See the latter part of the article detailing some of the history of CFS beginning in 1984, including some of the response from the former head of CFS research at the CDC for twenty years, Dr. William Reeves. (He retired in February 2010 from that position.)

Whether MLV turns out to be a “cause” of CFS or not, XMRV and MLV are important areas of investigation. Thank goodness and finally, research is moving forward to answer the big questions about this horrid and prevalent illness!

Thank you. I encourage you to leave your comments below. Take a moment to answer the questions I posed earlier plus these queries, too: Do you think there are many representations of CFS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Are you affected differently than other people whom you meet?

Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show
“Getting you the CFS Info and discussing your important health matters.”

Tagged as: cfs, CFS info, Dr Harvey Alter, MLV, murine leukemia virus, XMRV