From Opinion in ‘Trends in Microbiology', 5 October 2011.
Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) does not cause chronic fatigue
Mark J. Robinson, Otto Erlwein, Myra O. McClure
Section of Infectious Diseases, Jefferiss Research Trust Laboratories, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, London, W2 1PG, UK
Summary
The xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV), a gammaretrovirus, was discovered in prostate cancer tumours by Virochip technology in 2006. It was subsequently detected in chronic fatigue patients in 2009. The association between XMRV and chronic fatigue has proved to be controversial. No study has confirmed these findings and many have refuted them. Here, we present the evidence for our contention that XMRV is not a human pathogen.
Should people be surprised that again McClure has produced another fatigue paper and not one on ME.
VP62 does not exist in nature. It was created by Silverman in 2006 from three sources for his prostate cancer research. The human gammaretroviruses discovered in Lombardi et al. and confirmed in Lo et al. have been proven to not be VP62. They discovered the same HGRVs.
All studies that used the VP62 clone are no longer counted in HGRV research. As are all papers that used Silverman’s primers, which never worked for NCI/Ruscetti or WPI/Mikovits.
We are left with 2 positive papers and a third from 1997 that also found HGRVs. No negative paper, including the failed blood working group study, has been published into HGRVs. Studies will now begin again.