Per ProHealth’s newsletter today… we have validation of XMRV at last!
Variants in CFS Patients
At 3:00 pm Eastern time on Monday, August 23, the National Institutes of Health held a special telebriefing for the world’s press to announce publication of the long-awaited article by NIH, FDA, and Harvard Medical School researchers Harvey Alter, et al. It reports evidence of murine leukemia virus-related viruses (MLV) in the blood of 32 of 37 CFS patients tested. (XMRV is one of several variants of the MLV family of retroviruses, and the findings clearly support the WPI team’s Oct 2009 paper in Science, the researchers stated.)
For more of XMRV’s backsstory and more XMRV info, see Mindy Kitei’s report at CFSCentral.com – The FDA/NIH/Harvard ‘XMRV’ study: The same thing, only different.
The Alter, et al. article (Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and healthy controls – PDF), which had been under strict embargo, was posted online August 23 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Okay. It’s time to get a bit excited! Let’s congratulate everyone who has had a hand in this science so far.
THANK YOU!
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Sue 08.24.10 at 6:48 pm
I think this may be the tipping point. Finally finally- research is moving forward. Now today I read that some doctors are giving HIV type drugs to some people with CFS. I’m wondering if anyone knows something about that? It’s mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.
Cinda Crawford 08.24.10 at 7:14 pm
Hi Sue, thanks for your comment. I believe this will turn out to be an important time in the history of CFS– with the publication of the PNAS paper. However, I’m unsure of doctors prescribing HIV drugs for CFS. Some opinions on that issue say that that would be jumping the gun and that doctors should wait for the research to prove that these drugs help one way or the other. Keep in mind that HIV drugs are really strong and expensive. It would be a shame to take them, endure all of that and then they not help. Also, as far as Amy Dockwer Marcus’s article in the Wall Street Journal, she is equating treatment of CFS with HIV because of XMRV. The PNAS paper does not make that link. Instead, it demonstrates the possible relationship of CFS with Murine Leukemia Virus (not a retrovirus, but closely associated with one, XMRV). Let’s hope the talking and researching keep going full speed ahead!