Virology. 2011 Sep 16. [Epub ahead of print]
No detectable XMRV in subjects with chronic fatigue syndrome from Quebec
Cool M, Bouchard N, Massé G, Laganière B, Dumont A, Hanna Z, Phaneuf D, Morisset R, Jolicoeur P.
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, 110 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2W 1R7.
Abstract
We investigated the presence of XMRV in a cohort of Quebec patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). DNA was purified from activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and PCR was used to detect XMRV gag and env in 72 patients. Anti-XMRV antibodies were searched in sera of 62 patients by Western blot analysis. Attempts to detect XMRV antigens was made, using immunofluorescence with Gag anti-p30 antiserum on activated PBMC from 50 patients. Plasma viremia was measured by RT-PCR on 9 subjects. Finally, detection of infectious virus in 113 CFS subjects was made by co-culture of PHA+IL-2 activated PBMC with human LNCaP carcinoma cells, and by infecting the same susceptible cells with plasma, using a reverse transcriptase (RT) assay as a readout in both experiments. No detection of XMRV footprints nor infectious virus was detected with any of the approaches, in any of the tested individuals.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PMID: 21925693 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]
Without access to the full paper, it is impossible to know if this is a valid conclusion.
All the studies that have come to the same conclusion and have been available for detailed analysis have had major flaws in cohort selection and/or assay preparation.
There’s an interesting critique of the Paprotka recombinant paper here: http://scieme.blogspot.com/2011/09/recombinant-origin-of-xmrv-paper-why_17.html
Different patients, not defined using the Canadian criteria. They also found positives and have ignored them without an explanation. Hardly surprising when their assays are again not diagnostically validated and optimised.
The Whittemore Peterson Institute under Mikovits and the NCI under Ruscetti found a family of gammaretrviruses. It says much that people focusing on only looking for a few strains of one variant. They are avoiding the question posed in Lombardi et al. and confirmed in Lo et al.