Viral Theory Is Set Back in Chronic Fatigue Study (XMRV link to ME/CFS fails)

New York Times ^ | September 22, 2011 | David Tuller

[Seizethecarp]

Dashing the hopes of many people with chronic fatigue syndrome, an eagerly awaited study coordinated by government health agencies has not confirmed a link between the illness and a virus called XMRV or others from the same class of mouse leukemia viruses.

Two research groups had earlier reported an association between chronic fatigue syndrome and the group of viruses, known as murine leukemia viruses, or M.L.V.’s, raising hopes that a treatment or cure could be found. But later studies did not substantiate the link, and many researchers suggested that that the initial findings were the result of contamination of laboratory samples or equipment.

The new multilab study, published online Thursday in the journal Science, was designed to answer some of the questions about these unusual viruses and determine whether they posed a risk to the blood supply.

“These results indicate that current assays do not reproducibly detect XMRV/M.L.V. in blood samples and that blood donor screening is not warranted,” reported the new study, written by researchers participating the Blood XMRV Scientific Working Group.

Also on Thursday, researchers from the original study linking XMRV to chronic fatigue syndrome, which was published in Science in October 2009, retracted a portion of their data — but not their conclusions — because of evidence of contamination in one lab involved in the study.

Dr. Nancy Klimas, an immunologist at the University of Miami, said that the two-year debate over M.L.V.’s had raised the profile of the disease and brought attention to the likely role of infectious agents in chronic fatigue syndrome.

“Internationally recognized experts have looked at the immune data and concluded that there very well may be a pathogen or pathogens involved in the persistence of this illness,” Dr. Klimas wrote in an e-mail message.

[Seizethecarp]

From the CFIDS ME/CFS research site:

http://www.research1st.com/2011/09/22/science-xmrv/

Two years ago, the possibility of XMRV as a causative agent of CFS raised high hopes for unequivocal validation and rapid means by which CFS could be objectively diagnosed and effectively treated.

Today, the journal Science has published three important articles:

1.“Failure to confirm XMRV/MLVs in the blood of patients with CFS: a multi-lab study” by Graham Simmons et al. on behalf of the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group (SWRG);

2.“Partial retraction” by Robert Silverman et al., regarding a portion of data published in the initial report from Vincent Lombardi et al. dated Oct. 9, 2009; and

3.“False Positive” by Jon Cohen and Martin Enserink, a provocative eight-page news article by two staff writers that follows XMRV from initial discovery up to the present.

[refermech]

man, this is tiring...

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

While I agree with your assertion thast it is tiring I still feel the story is ready to go viral.