The CFIDS Association of America

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March 18, 2011Link Extra

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MEDIA COVERAGE

XMRV NEWS

OTHER RESEARCH NEWS

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There continues to be unprecedented interest in CFS and the conflicting evidence linking it to XMRV. In the past week it has made front page news on the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune, and a lengthy article in Nature, a top science journal. Here's the latest; you can find news sent through three other editions of CFIDSLink earlier this month on our website.

MEDIA COVERAGE

The front page of today's Chicago Tribune introduces the latest article from reporter Trine Tsouderos about XMRV, CFS and the scientific controversy playing out in laboratories and the media. Tsouderos is the first to report comment from Silverman of the Cleveland Clinic, about the possibility that XMRV may be a contaminant. "'I am concerned about lab contamination, despite our best efforts to avoid it,' Silverman wrote in an e-mail, adding that similar cell lines 'are in many, many labs around the world. Contamination could come from any one of a number of different sites.'" Silverman's team first discovered XMRV in prostate cancer cells; he tested CFS samples for the Whittemore Institute (WPI) and that data was included in the original report in Science. The article also appears in today's Los Angeles Times.

The Mar. 17, 2010 issue of Nature, one of the world's top science periodicals, features a four-page article about XMRV and CFS, "Fighting for a Cause." Writer Ewen Callaway visited WPI, interviewed researchers, physicians - including Dr. - and patients for the story. He talks about the topic in a Nature podcast. An editorial, "Cause for Concern," completes the extensive coverage in the world's most heavily cited interdisciplinary science journal. The editors conclude with, "Several lines of evidence suggest that CFS has an infectious origin. It is to be hoped that one day scientists will manage to pin it down once and for all."

AMA Morning Rounds is a weekday briefing of news and studies sent to members of the American Medical Association each morning. Today's edition includes the following:

Studies refute XMRV association with chronic fatigue syndrome.

The Chicago Tribune (3/18, Tsouderos) reports that despite a high-profile study published in Science in 2009, a "European research team this week reported being unable to find any evidence of XMRV in the blood of people" diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). And that is just the "latest in a stream of studies in which researchers looking for the retrovirus in the blood of both sick and healthy people have come up empty." Some studies suggest the new virus was nothing more than "a laboratory contaminant." The 2009 study leaders, however, "strongly deny" that contamination skewed their findings, although biologist Silverman, who worked on studies that linked XMRV to CFS and prostate cancer, told the Tribune he is analyzing a stored XMRV cell line "to determine if contamination occurred."

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XMRV NEWS

A team of Japanese researchers led by Rika Furata at the Japanese Red Cross has reported no association between XMRV and CFS or prostate cancer in a paper published in Retrovirology on Mar. 17, 2011. They found low levels of anti-gag antibody reactivity in 2% of the 100 CFS subjects, 3% of the 67 prostate cancer subjects, and 1.6% of the 500 healthy controls tested, but XMRV genes were barely detectable and they could not detect XMRV RNA or DNA in the blood. The authors write that the antibody results suggest limited replication of XMRV in vivo or cross-reactivity. Hirohiko Kuratsune recruited the CFS patients from his CFS clinic at Osaka University. He is considered the top CFS physician in Japan.

We have recently confirmed that Phase III of the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group's four-part study is proceeding. Sample collection is presently under way and results of participating labs' tests for XMRV and polytropic MLVs are expected this summer. We have also confirmed that the study being funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and coordinated by Ian Lipkin at Columbia University will proceed as planned. Sample collection for that study has not yet begun.

There are other new publications about the biology of XMRV. Check our XMRV Resource List regularly for updates and links.

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OTHER RESEARCH NEWS

The International Association for CFS/ME is inviting abstracts for presentation as oral or poster sessions at the biennial meeting, "Translating Evidence Into Practice." The meeting will be held in Ottawa, Sept. 22-25, 2011. Abstracts are due Apr. 2, 2011.

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Our Mission:

For CFS to be widely understood, diagnosable,

curable and preventable. Our Strategy:

To stimulate research aimed at the early detection, objective diagnosis and effective treatment of CFS through expanded public, private and commercial investment. Our Core Values:

To lead with integrity, innovation and purpose.

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