TGI Friday! Our weekly round up of research abstracts, 21 October 2011

Our weekly summary of research abstracts from papers that have not already appeared on the MEA website.

Clin. Lab. 2011;57(7-8):631-4.

Presence of murine leukemia virus (MLV)-related virus gene sequences in a commercial RT-PCR reagent.

Wolff D, Gerritzen A.
Medical Laboratory Bremen, Bremen, Germany. dietmar.wolff@mlhb.de

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The recent identification of murine leukemia virus (MLV)-related viruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has aroused much interest, not least among sufferers. However, other studies failed to detect these viruses in CFS patients.

METHODS:

We wanted to establish a MLV-related virus real-time PCR for routine diagnostics.

RESULTS:

Our study identified false positive MLV-related virus results due to a contamination of Superscript III Platinum One-Step Quantitative RT-PCR System (Invitrogen).

CONCLUSIONS:

This observation may be helpful to elucidate discrepant results for the detection of MLV-related virus like xenotropic MLV-related virus (XMRV) in recently published studies.

PMID: 21888029 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

Cell Host Microbe. 2011 Apr 21;9(4):260-2.

XMRV as a human pathogen?

Wainberg MA, Jeang KT.
McGill University AIDS Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Abstract

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) has been proposed to be associated with prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). This proposition has been controversial because many investigators have failed to replicate the reported associations. Here, we explore whether XMRV is an authentic human pathogen in the light of recent findings that indicate otherwise.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID: 21501825 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

Clin Rheumatol. 2011 Jul;30(7):895-906. Epub 2011 Feb 8.

Characteristics of chronic fatigue syndrome in a Japanese community population : chronic fatigue syndrome in Japan.

Hamaguchi M, Kawahito Y, Takeda N, Kato T, Kojima T.
Inflammation and Immunology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465, Kajii-cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan. seele@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp

Abstract

This study seeks to estimate the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and assess the characteristics of CFS in a community population in Japan using laboratory tests and questionnaires for lifestyle, fatigue states, and depression states. The design of this study is a cross-sectional observational study. The setting of this study is a medical health checkup program in a general hospital. This study was conducted with 1,430 Japanese (867 men and 563 women), 20 to 78 years of age. We classified participants who complained of fatigue according to the case definition of CFS proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA in 1994. Alcohol, caffeine, catechin and total polyphenol consumption, smoking status, sleep duration, and physical activity were evaluated using questionnaires. The prevalence of CFS was 1.0% (95% CI 0.5-1.6%) of a community population in Japan. Although various lifestyle factors of the participants with CFS were similar to those without chronic fatigue, average sleep duration was significantly shorter among the participants with CFS (5.5 ± 0.8 h) compared to those without chronic fatigue (6.3 ± 0.9 h, P < 0.001). Proportion at subjects having average sleep duration of less than 6 h was 64.3% among the participants with CFS in contrast to only 15.0% in those without chronic fatigue (P < 0.001). Among the eight case-defining symptoms, "Unrefreshing sleep" had high sensitivity and high specificity for screening CFS in Japanese population (92.9% and 87.8%, respectively). The average sleep duration was notably shorter in Japanese suffering from CFS. Further longitudinal study is needed to evaluate the possibility of extreme short sleep duration as a major cause of CFS in Japan.PMID: 21302125 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]