DETECTION OF MLV-RELATED VIRUS GENE SEQUENCES IN BLOOD OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME AND HEALTHY BLOOD DONORS

The long awaited Alter/Lo paper thanks to blog Life as we Know it.

http://cfs-facts.blogspot.com/2010/08/and-here-it-is-long-awaited-paper.html

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/08/16/1006901107.full.pdf+html


Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in
blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
and healthy blood donors
Shyh-Ching Loa,1, Natalia Pripuzovaa, Bingjie Lia, Anthony L. Komaroffb, Guo-Chiuan Hunga, Richard Wangc,
and Harvey J. Alterc,1

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a serious systemic illness of
unknown cause. A recent study identified DNA from a xenotropic
murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) in peripheral blood
mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 68 of 101 patients (67%) by nested
PCR, as compared with 8 of 218 (3.7%) healthy controls. However,
four subsequent reports failed to detect any murine leukemia virus
(MLV)-related virus gene sequences in blood of CFS patients. We
examined 41 PBMC-derived DNA samples from 37 patients meeting
accepted diagnostic criteria for CFS and found MLV-like virus gag
gene sequences in 32 of 37 (86.5%) compared with only 3 of 44
(6.8%) healthy volunteer blood donors. No evidence of mouse
DNA contamination was detected in the PCR assay system or the
clinical samples. Seven of 8 gag-positive patients tested again positive
in a sample obtained nearly 15 y later. In contrast to the
reported findings of near-genetic identity of all XMRVs, we identified
a genetically diverse group of MLV-related viruses. The gag
and env sequences from CFS patients were more closely related
to those of polytropic mouse endogenous retroviruses than to
those of XMRVs and were even less closely related to those of
ecotropic MLVs. Further studies are needed to determine whether
the same strong association with MLV-related viruses is found in
other groups of patients with CFS, whether these viruses play
a causative role in the development of CFS, and whether they represent
a threat to the blood supply.