Abstract paper: Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract paper: Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract and links for full paper in this posting: http://wp.me/p5foE-2Bd
Media coverage Round up 1 here: http://wp.me/p5foE-2Bj
Patient organisation responses Round up 2 here: http://wp.me/p5foE-2BA

Abstract and access to full paper in text and PDF format on PLoS ONE site here:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0008519

or open PDF here: Imperial College London study

Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Otto Erlwein1, Steve Kaye1, Myra O. McClure1*, Jonathan Weber1, Gillian Wills1, David Collier2, Simon Wessely3, Anthony Cleare3

1 Jefferiss Research Trust Laboratories, Section of Infectious Diseases, Wright-Fleming Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, St Mary’s Campus, Norfolk Place, London, United Kingdom, 2 Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry (King’s College London) De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, United Kingdom, 3 Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, Camberwell, London, United Kingdom

Background

In October 2009 it was reported that 68 of 101 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in the US were infected with a novel gamma retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV), a virus previously linked to prostate cancer. This finding, if confirmed, would have a profound effect on the understanding and treatment of an incapacitating disease affecting millions worldwide. We have investigated CFS sufferers in the UK to determine if they are carriers of XMRV.

Methodology

Patients in our CFS cohort had undergone medical screening to exclude detectable organic illness and met the CDC criteria for CFS. DNA extracted from blood samples of 186 CFS patients were screened for XMRV provirus and for the closely related murine leukaemia virus by nested PCR using specific oligonucleotide primers. To control for the integrity of the DNA, the cellular beta-globin gene was amplified. Negative controls (water) and a positive control (XMRV infectious molecular clone DNA) were included. While the beta-globin gene was amplified in all 186 samples, neither XMRV nor MLV sequences were detected.

Conclusion

XMRV or MLV sequences were not amplified from DNA originating from CFS patients in the UK. Although we found no evidence that XMRV is associated with CFS in the UK, this may be a result of population differences between North America and Europe regarding the general prevalence of XMRV infection, and might also explain the fact that two US groups found XMRV in prostate cancer tissue, while two European studies did not.

Citation: Erlwein O, Kaye S, McClure MO, Weber J, Wills G, et al. (2010) Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8519. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008519

Editor: Douglas F. Nixon, University of California San Francisco, United States of America

Received: December 1, 2009; Accepted: December 4, 2009; Published: January 6, 2010

Copyright: © 2010 Erlwein et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: AC, DC and SW are partially funded by the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust/Institute of Psychiatry National Institute of Health Biomedical Resaerch Centre. The team from Imperial College is grateful for support from the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Funding Scheme. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

* E-mail: m.mcclure@imperial.ac.uk

Full paper, tables and references here, published under “Open Access:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0008519