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HOT! Coffin @ Conference on Retroviral Infections & Opportunistic

Infections

http://forums.aboutmaecfs.org/showthread.php?3241-HOT%21--Coffin-Confere

nce-on-Retroviral-Infections-Opportunistic-Infections & p=48387#post48387

Just stumbled on this at the website for the 17th Conference on

Retroviral Infections and Opportunistic Infections, in San Francisco all

this week. HOT stuff on XMRV!:

http://www.ifarablog.org/2010/02/fri...se-to-man.html

Lots of video archived, and I just wasn't up to wading thru most of it.

BUT I can't sleep from achiness tonight anyway, and my heart is behaving

itself tonite, so I DID get some goodies. There were 3 videos - one a press

conference on XMRV with Dr Goff, and the others video interviews

with Dr Coffin, then Dr Goff again, parts of which that just rocked! To

navigate thru the videos, start with the hotlink above. Watch the video,

then click the " More " button. Then just keep clicking the > button on the

bottom left side of the video image to move thru the other videos.

Bottom line, we've got some very smart retrovirologists all hot and

bothered about XMRV. Remember what I said about XMRV's ugly sister (ME/CFS)

that gets dragged along to the ball? Well, it's happening, and if anything,

the discordant findings on XMRV seem to be spurring these retrovirology

top-guns on to search harder - NOT to give up!

Excerpts from Coffin¹s interview.

Interviewer: We¹re here with Coffin who is co-chair of the CROI

(Conference on Retroviral Infections and Opportunistic Infections)Š can you

give us a sense of, introduce us to some of the amazing things that are

happening here at the conference. I know that you always try tend to

downplay things because they are early.

Coffin: Of course basic science is always at the beginning and you

don¹t know when you start to build on that towards clinical utility, what¹s

going to work out and what will notŠ

There was quite a bit here just in the sessions this morning on the

new virus, the brand new virus called XMRV which is a retrovirus but it¹s

not like HIV, it¹s not a lentivirus, it¹s very much like viruses that I and

Dr Goff who gave the presentation this morning on the subject, have been

studying for years and years and yearsŠ I mean really since the 70¹s. We¹ve

been looking at these viruses for 35 years or more. These viruses were

recently discovered to be in association with ­ possible association with ­

prostate cancer in humans and perhaps chronic fatigue syndrome. There was a

very exciting paper on that. Other studies that have been published recently

are not necessarily concordant with those findings. There is no question I

think that the virus is real and that the virus is infecting some numbers of

people. And it¹s VERY (Coffin's emphasis) important to figure out where it

is going as far as all of its disease associations are concernedŠ it¹s very

early daysŠ if you think back to 1983 and what it was like with HIV, how

uncertain things are, how long it really takes to grind the sausage (!) and

come to a consensus to understand what¹s really going onŠWe¹re still in a

pre-consensus stage with this virus, and although it¹s annoying and

confusing, it¹s really exciting. (WE WANT EXCITED RETROVIROLOGISTS!)

Š. A couple of talks today discussed animal models (and XMRV)Š

(Macaque monkeys)Š they¹ve been able to follow this virus in animal modelsŠ.

Takes a long time until you have disease (mutopathogenic model)Š In mice

these (murine leukemia) viruses cause cancer, immunodeficiencies,

neurological diseaseŠ there is good reason at least to think that these

viruses may be associated with disease in humans, perhaps prostate cancer,

perhaps Chronic Fatigue SyndromeŠ.

When asked by the interviewer: ³Was there anything else you took

away from this conference², Coffin responded, ³Those (including the XMRV

topic) are the main highlights².

From Goff's interview

Goff: ³We know very little about its mode of transmission. We don¹t

have any reason yet to be excited about any pathology but it¹s certainly

something we want to pay attention to and make sure we¹re not missing

anything. (NOTE: Remember, this is early stages)

... And so we live as humans with a lot of viruses that are

non-pathogenic or that are not detrimental to the populationŠ (My note: We

know from the French study this week that the envelope has an

immunosuppressive function - i.e. XRMV is NOT an innocent bystander) I think

people want to know a lot of simple things. It would be great to know the

origin ­ if it was a mouseŠWe¹d love to know the tissues in which it

replicates, and we know a little about that now because we¹ve studied the

virus in culture....the most important maybe is the prevalence in the human

population, which we don¹t knowŠ.

Interviewer: Are there any other colleagues working on this, or is

there some sense of urgency, or just casually looking at itŠ

Goff: The NCI is pretty serious about it, they don¹t want to miss

anything. And they want to play a role in identifying the properties of this

virus and its potential risks. So they¹re pretty serious about it. The range

of anxiety is from very mild to the worst scenarios: ³Gosh, do we need to be

worried about it getting into the blood bank. Do we need to be concerned if

it¹s really causing a certain subset of prostate ca. And the latest is the

potential link reported last year of an association with CFS which would be

very exciting because that¹s a disease that has struggled to find a viral

cause.

Interviewer: So that might be the cause?

Goff: Could beŠ

Interviewer:Š. We talked about not being alarmistŠ.

From Press Conference with Dr Goff (the first video):

" What you all know at this point is that XMRV was recovered from a

series of prostate cancer samples from patients a few years ago and

immediately it was apparent from the sequence of that recovered virus was

that it was exceedingly similar to the xenotropic virus in miceŠ so I talked

a bit about that history that goes back actually to the 70¹s. The appearance

of this virus in human samples was exciting. (AGAIN, WE WANT HOT AND

BOTHERED RETROVIROLOGISTS!) This virus causes diseases in mice that would be

of concern if similar things were happening in people. The XMRV virus has at

this point a very controversial history because as Coffin said, this is

early daysŠ. I would say in the prostate cancer area there is a lot better

consensus of the recovery of the virus repeatedly in many labs. Incidence of

the recovery is very low. The range is pretty high, from 0 to 20%. But maybe

there¹s a fairly common recovery of it in a few percent of samples. So it

(XMRV) is definitely out there. I talked about the behavior of the virus in

culture which in our hands is quite vigorous. It¹s a very easy to grow virus

in the right cell types. Several of the talks today talked about some of the

behavior of the virus, for example it¹s androgen responsive, or GRE

responsive. Hormone responsive ­ the receptor that it uses. Both of which

bear on cell types in which it can be found. The most recent exciting work

of course is the discovery in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that too is very

controversial. Some people are finding it, some not. I think that will have

to be worked out in the coming months and years. (GOOD - THEY'RE NOT GIVING

UP)!The questions which will have to be addressed are indeed the prevalence

of the virus. How is it transmitted. Where does it come fromŠ etc. From a

single transmission from the mouseŠ or is it being repeatedly transmitted in

separate incidents ­ we don¹t know these things. But for sure it¹s a virus

that we need to know more about. (!!!!) We need to have people, as we

brought up this morning, sharing samples, sharing assays, trying to come to

a consensus about all these issues and I think it will come. "

Presentations included:

* XMRV: Examination of Viral Kinetics, Tissue Tropism and

Serological Markers of Infection. Hackett Jr, Abbott Diagnostics,

Abbott Park, IL US

* Mouse to Man? XMRV and Human Disease. Goff, Columbia Univ

Coll of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, NY, US

* Virus-Host Interaction: HIV and XMRV Organ and Cell Lineage

Dissemination of XMRV in Rhesus Macaques during Acute and Chronic Infection.

Prachi Sharma, Yerkes Natl Primate Res Ctr, Emory Univ, Atlanta, GA, US

Not sure how much else there is. Maybe an opportunity for transcribers

to start your engines? Lots to discuss, and it looks as though there may be

more this Saturday:

And finally: Click back to this website

http://www.ifarablog.org/p/treatment-update-2010.html where you will be able

to watch IFARA's program, " Treatment Update 2010 " , from the Conference on

Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). (NOTE: Not sure if it will

address XMRV at all)

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

3-5pm Eastern Time

2-4pm Central Time

1-3pm Mountain Time

noon-2pm Pacific Time

11am-1pm Alaska Time

10am - Noon Hawaii Time