As reported in MedPage on Sunday from work at the Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunisitic infections in San Francisco, current studies about the XMRV, Xenogrophic Murine Leukemia-related Virus, indicate that many secrets about XMRV are unfolding gradually, but that we’re probably only at the beginning of the process.
To date there is a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding XMRV. Most of it is coming from the UK after a series of studies found no correlation between XMRV infection and CFS or CFSME.
However, these studies are in question by many people because of how they were constructed, patient-wise. It is suspected that they didn’t use the accepted diagnostic criteria to qualify their sample patient population. We’re left to conclude that the results they obtained could be skewed.
Example: if you looking for blondes in a group of black-haired people, do you think you’ll find any blondes??
Similar to the early days with the HIV retrovirus, there’s certainly more that we don’t know than what we do know or what we can prove. Some instances of XMRV showing up in prostrate cancer victims and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers has been obtained. Per Stephen Goff, PhD of Columbia University in New York City, he “cautioned that has yet to be any clear evidence linking it to disease.”
However, there is more news from Dr. Goff and this time it’s better:
The genetic sequence of all XMRV isolates tested across the country, and across diseases, show so little divergence that the virus must have only recently jumped to humans — likely from a point source and with limited numbers of replication cycles during transmission,
This implies that a vaccine might be much easier to develop than for HIV, he explained at a press conference.
Prachi Sharma, PhD, of Emory presented another part of the results involving monkeys. They tested positive for XMRV replicating in the tissues although the infection was somewhat limited.
It was notable that the monkey exhibited no visible symptoms or fever when infected…
And reported by John Hacketts, Jr., PhD, of Abbott Diagnostics,
the researchers were… able to show, for the first time, the existence of antibodies to multiple XMRV proteins in humans… .
So on goes the saga. Hopefully, it will continue for awhile until they know all the answers. Here’s the link to the whole report on MedPage, but before you go, see if you agree with me on the following points:
#1: There has been a discovery of the existence of XMRV, Xenotrophic Murine Leukemia-related Virus, also recognized as the newest retrovirus since HIV.
#2: Per some clinical findings, evidence of XMRV is showing up in cancer cells of men with prostate cancer and in people classed with having CFS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
#3: Because of the virus’s newness and apparent lack of re-duplication so many times, there is hope that a vaccine might not be as difficult to develop as has been for HIV.
#4:All researcher/ scientists do not agree that XMRV is showing up in the CFS population in masse. Investigations are continuing. The main body to verify the findings are the WPI, Whittemore Peterson Institute of Neuroimmune Disease, located on the University of Nevada’s medical school campus in Reno, Nevada, as directed by Annette Whittemore, Founder and President.
#5: Until enough verification one way or the other occurs, we cannot consider XMRV more than a possibility of causing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in lots of people.
As has been said before, there could be more than one cause or trigger to this type of illness. All we, the patient population, wants to know are the real, true facts and we wait for “Secrets Unfolding Amid Tremendous Controversy.”
Thank you so much. Feel free to leave your comments below. And to research more about XMRV, see the other links on this page -or- simply put “XMRV” in the search engine here and pull up every post.
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show
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