J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.05137-11
Copyright © 2011,American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed
Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.
The left half of XMRV is present in an endogenous retrovirus of NIH/3T3 Swiss mouse cells
Ramon Mendoza, Andrew E. Vaughan, and A. Dusty Miller
Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
Correspondence: A. Dusty Miller, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA., Phone: (206) 667-2890. E-mail: dmiller@fhcrc.org
ABSTRACT
Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is a gammaretrovirus found in association with human prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, although these associations are controversial. XMRV shows at most 94% identity to known mouse retroviruses. Here we used XMRV-specific PCR to search for a more closely related source of XMRV in mice. While we could not find a complete copy, we did find a 3,600 bp region of XMRV in an endogenous retrovirus present in NIH/3T3 cells. These results show that XMRV has clear ancestors in mice, and highlight another possible source of contamination in PCR assays for XMRV.
Thanks for posting this – I can’t get the full article either.
Found this discussion though:
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=118972138191048&id=216740433250
Unfortunately, many of the questions and comments have been deleted/moderated – so what could have been informative discussion with one of those scientists in the lab, is not as productive [sigh].
“These results show … another possible source of contamination”
Or another origin. Didn’t HIV originate in monkeys/apes?
This virus is PreXMRV-2. Coffins virus with the strange name. Strange because it has never been shown to be ancestral to XMRV. It really isn’t an interesting paper and it is a surprise it was even published.
It seems that this virus is still yet to be confirmed. If only they had done so in the paper. Cloning only one half is not good enough. So was it XMRV?
Another continuing discussion from Andy Vaughan one of Dusty Miller’s lab associates:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=216740433250&topic=15656