FW: Todays Schafer Autism Report

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I attempted to post this last Monday but it did not appear

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From: Crosss [mailto:crosswilsons@...]

Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 8:33 PM

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Subject: Todays Schafer Autism Report

From Schafer Autism Report today - a transcript from the NPR interview plus

a commentary below by Kirby

Monday, October 12, 2009

RESEARCH

Virus Tied To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

" The virus [is] in a significant number of samples that. . .could be

linked to a number of neuro-immune diseases, including autism. " - Lead

author Judy Mikovits, Ph.D. [see COMMENTARY, below. -ed.]

From NPR. is.gd/4fyS4

Researchers have found a virus that might be at the root of chronic

fatigue syndrome. More than a million Americans suffer from the disease,

which can leave them exhausted even after a good night's sleep, cause

debilitating pain in muscles and joints, and make concentrating difficult.

Montagne talks with Dr. , one of the first to recognize

chronic fatigue syndrome.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: We have news, now, of a scientific breakthrough

about a disease that affects over a million people in the U.S. - Chronic

Fatigue Syndrome. Chronic Fatigue affects the immune system, leaving its

victims exhausted all the time. It can cause debilitating muscle and joint

pain and cognitive problems.

According to a new study in the journal Science Express, two-thirds of

a group suffering from Chronic Fatigue were infected with the retro virus

called XMRV. Researchers can't yet say whether XMRV actually causes Chronic

Fatigue Syndrome, but there is a strong association.

Dr. was one of the first to recognize Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome as a disease. He's medical director of a neuro-disease institute in

Nevada.

Thank you for joining us.

Dr. DANIEL PETERSON (Medical Director, Whittemore Institute

for Neuro-Immune Disease): Thank you very much.

MONTAGNE: Now, you've been in this field from the beginning and would

have paid attention to how patients have often been ridiculed - as to

somehow they don't really have a disease. Why did people think that?

Dr. PETERSON: I think the reason for that is the abnormalities of the

immune system are initially very subtle. And if a physician does just

routine testing - CBCs, chemistry panels, urinalysis, things like that - you

find they're normal. And it isn't until you look at the immune system that

you realize there's substantial dis-regulation of the immune system.

So, it's very similar to asymptomatic carriers of HIV. They look just

fine until time passes and their illness evolves and more symptoms are

found. But I never felt this was predominantly a psychiatric disease or

malingering. There was never any evidence to support that theory.

MONTAGNE: Was your work, though, in the early stages, in a sense, you

know, looked down upon. Like you're working on something that everyone knows

isn't really a disease.

Dr. PETERSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was a problem in the early

'80s, particularly, and this federal agencies never showed particular

interest in this disease as well.

MONTAGNE: So, what was the path to this discovery?

Dr. PETERSON: Yeah, it's an interesting story. Because once it was

demonstrated that the patients had impairment of their natural killer cell

function, regardless of what country they were in, we knew that there was an

immune impairment.

And back in the 1990s, I was associated with Temple University and the

researchers there that looked at the antiviral pathway - the natural defense

against viruses - and they found very substantial abnormalities in the

patients who had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And the illness is totally

compatible with a viral illness that just doesn't go away.

So, back then we didn't really have the tools to really look for the

inciting agent. So, we began the search probably about three years ago with

the new technology and looking for a possible agent that could explain all

these things. And lo and behold, through arduous scientific rigor, they

located XMRV.

MONTAGNE: And does new study suggest any new treatments? Dr. PETERSON:

The real excitement of this kind of translational research is that with an

agent we can target therapies specifically for that group of patients that

is infected. There are antiretroviral drugs that should be potentially

effective. And we know now, a target that we can go after in terms of immune

stimulation and in terms of antiviral therapy, and that's really the first

time in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that this has been possible.

MONTAGNE: So, that's really good news.

Dr. PETERSON: It's super good news.

MONTAGNE: You now know what is associated with Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome. Does it tell you how someone gets it?

Dr. PETERSON: It's an excellent question, because I think it's

required probably to be a genetic predisposition like there are for most

diseases. And then there has to be the infectious agent and then a

combination of host factors, probably immune factors, et cetera, that

propagate the disease.

And there's many other questions, of course, that arise: should the

blood supply be screened; what does this virus lead to in patients who have

it 20 or 30 years; can it be prevented; can there be a vaccine? All the

questions that come up in retrovirology.

MONTAGNE: is the medical director of the Whittemore

Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, Nevada.

+ Bloomberg here

<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124 & sid=aYnS75oC3ijQ> and the

Associated Press here

<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g7NceWUe3azfALQd57xz8WEMn

PbwD9B74L1O4> have more.

+ For a related analysis and commentary on the link between virus infection

and autism, see " Is Autism Associated with A Viral Infection? " in COMMENTARY

below. - ed.

COMMENTARY

Is Autism Associated with A Viral Infection?

By Kirby, Author/Journalist on huffingtonpost.com. is.gd/4fOw2

Last week, researchers from the University of Nevada, the National

Cancer Institute and The Cleveland Clinic announced the startling discovery

of antibodies to a little known retrovirus in 95% of patients with Myalgic

Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a debilitating

neuro-immune disease impacting more than a million people in the United

States.

The finding, published in the highly respected journal Science,

" clearly points to the retrovirus as a significant contributing factor in

this illness, " said lead author Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., director of research

for the Whittemore Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, which is

affiliated with the University of Nevada, Reno. It was the first study to

isolate particles of the retrovirus, XMRV, in human blood and demonstrate

that it is transmitted between blood cells. XMRV was first discovered in

prostate cancer tissue of men with certain genetic defects. Like the more

well-known retrovirus, HIV, this pathogen is blood-borne, and not

transmitted through the air.

The findings have potential significance for a number of other

disorders including, it turns out, autism.

Researchers tested blood samples from a " small group of children " with

autism and found that 40% of them were positive for XMRV, according to a

statement from the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders. More

testing is underway which, the Commission said, " could dramatically increase

that 40% positive finding. " (Given the small sample size, such a statement

is purely speculative).

As Dr. Mikovits explained to a television news program in Nevada, " It

is not in the paper and not reported, but we have actually done some of

these studies (in ASD children) and found the virus in a significant number

of samples that we have tested for. It could be linked to a number of

neuro-immune diseases, including autism. It certainly won't be all, because

there are genetic defects that result in autism. But there are also the

environmental effects; there is always the hypothesis that, 'My child was

fine and then they got sick, and then they got autism.' "

According to Dr. Mikovits, XMRV (which admittedly sounds like a

satellite radio system for your Winnebago) can lie dormant in people, until

it is " turned on or off " by other factors, such as stress hormones like

cortisol, or in response to the presence of inflammatory " cytokines, "

protein molecules secreted by immune cells to help regulate the immune

system.

And then Dr. Mikovits dropped a bombshell that is sure to spark

controversy.

" On that note, if I might speculate a little bit, " she said, " This

might even explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children,

because these viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune

response cells, the B and the T cells. So when you give a vaccine, you send

your B and T cells in your immune system into overdrive. That's its job.

Well, if you are harboring one virus, and you replicate it a whole bunch,

you've now broken the balance between the immune response and the virus. So

you have had the underlying virus, and then amplified it with that vaccine,

and then set off the disease, such that your immune system could no longer

control other infections, and created an immune deficiency. "

So there you have it - a possible explanation of regressive autism in

a significant number of cases associated with immune system deregulation

triggered by vaccination.

+ Read more: is.gd/4fOw2

Note: The opinions expressed in COMMENTARY are those of the author and

do not necessarily represent the views of the Schafer Autism Report.