Re: Wallstreet Jornal pasted into email

[Guest guest]

Retrovirus Linked to Chronic-Fatigue Syndrome

ArticleComments (1)

more in Health »

EmailPrinter

Friendly

Share:

facebook ↓ More

StumbleUponDiggTwitter BuzzFarkRedditLinkedIndel.icio.usMySpace

Save This ↓ More

Text

By AMY DOCKSER MARCUS

Researchers

have linked an infectious virus known to cause cancer in animals to

chronic-fatigue syndrome, a major discovery for sufferers of the

condition and one that concerned scientists for its potential

public-health implications.

An estimated 17 million people world-wide suffer from

chronic-fatigue syndrome, and the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention puts the U.S. figure at between one million and four

million. CFS is characterized by debilitating fatigue and chronic pain,

but there are no specific treatments, and the diagnosis is often made

by ruling out other diseases. Thus there is disagreement in the medical

community as to whether CFS is a distinct disease. A study showing a

strong viral association with CFS could change that equation.

But the significance of the finding, published Thursday in Science,

extends far beyond the community of people living with CFS. Researchers

are just as concerned about the finding that nearly 4% of healthy

people used as controls in the study were also infected with the virus,

called XMRV. If larger studies confirm these numbers, it could mean

that as many as 10 million people in the U.S. and hundreds of millions

of people around the world are infected with a virus that is already

strongly associated with at least two diseases.

The study was done by researchers at the Whittemore

Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, Nev., the National Cancer

Institute and the Cleveland Clinic.

In September, researchers at the University of Utah and Columbia

University Medical Center found XMRV in 27% of the prostate-cancer

samples they examined. That study also showed that 6% of the benign

prostate samples had XMRV. The chronic-fatigue study is the first to

find live XMRV virus in humans.

Neither study conclusively shows that XMRV causes chronic-fatigue

syndrome or prostate cancer. But the National Cancer Institute was

sufficiently concerned to convene a closed-door workshop in July to

discuss the public-health implications of XMRV infection. " NCI is

responding like it did in the early days of HIV, " says Stuart Le Grice,

head of the Center of Excellence in HIV/AIDS and cancer virology at NCI

and one of the organizers of the July workshop.

Like HIV, XMRV is a retrovirus, meaning once someone is infected,

the virus permanently remains in the body; either a person's immune

system keeps it under control or drugs are needed to treat it. The

virus creates an underlying immune deficiency, which might make people

vulnerable to a range of diseases, said Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore

Institute and one of the lead authors on the paper.

So far, XMRV, known fully as xenotropic murine leukemia

virus-related virus, doesn't appear to replicate as quickly as HIV

does. Scientists also don't know how XMRV is transmitted, but the

infection was found in patients' blood samples, raising the possibility

that it could be transmitted through blood or bodily fluids.

Dr. Le Grice of the NCI said the highest priority now was to quickly

develop a validated blood test or other assay that could be used in

doctors' offices to determine who has XMRV. At the workshop,

participants also raised the issue of protecting the nation's blood

supply. Dr. Le Grice said there isn't enough evidence yet to suggest

that people with XMRV shouldn't be blood donors but that determining

how XMRV is transmitted was a critical issue. " A large effort is under

way to answer all these questions, " he said. " I do not want this to be

cause for panic. "

Although Thursday's scientific paper doesn't demonstrate

conclusively that XMRV is a cause of CFS, additional unpublished data

make it a very strong possibility. Dr. Mikovits said that using

additional tests, the scientists determined that more than 95% of the

patients in the study are either infected with live virus or are making

antibodies that show their immune systems mounted an attack against

XMRV and now had the virus under control. " Just like you cannot have

AIDS without HIV, I believe you won't be able to find a case of

chronic-fatigue syndrome without XMRV, " Dr. Mikovits said.

At the July workshop, Dr. Mikovits also presented preliminary data

showing that 20 patients of the 101 in the study have lymphoma, a rare

form of cancer. The link between XMRV and lymphoma is still being

investigated, but it raised the possibility that XMRV may be associated

with other cancers in addition to prostate cancer. NCI's Dr. Le Grice

said studies will be launched to determine whether XMRV is associated

with other diseases. At the Whittemore Institute, Dr. Mikovits

said they also found XMRV in people with autism, atypical multiple

sclerosis and fibromyalgia.

The Science study was based on blood samples from a national

repository at the Whittemore Institute collected from doctors

in cities where outbreaks of chronic-fatigue syndrome occurred during

the 1980s and '90s. One of the key questions that the NCI's Dr. Le

Grice says must now be answered is whether XMRV shows up in large

numbers of CFS patients all over the country.

Silverman, a professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner

Research Institute who is one of the co-authors of the study and one of

the discoverers of the XMRV virus, said he believes the virus began in

mice and then spread to humans, and that " in most cases, people's

immune systems are probably able to control the virus. " Researchers are

already starting to test antiretroviral therapies developed for AIDS to

see if they are effective against XMRV.

The work on XMRV in chronic-fatigue patients initially was funded by

Annette and Harvey Whittemore and the University of Nevada, Reno. The

Whittemores set up the institute in 2006 after watching their daughter

suffer from chronic-fatigue syndrome for most of her life. They

spent millions of their own money to pay for administrative services,

office space, lab equipment and research operations. They were

frustrated by the lack of government funding for scientific research

into the disease.

At their home in Reno, Whittemore-Goad, 31 years old, used

oxygen before speaking about the devastating toll CFS has taken on her.

Ms. Whittemore-Goad says she was a regular school girl, playing

sports and involved in school activities, until the age of 10, when she

became ill with a monolike virus that she couldn't shake. She said

doctors first told her parents that the illness was psychological, that

she had school phobia and was under stress from her parents. " We kept

searching for an answer, " says Ms. Whittemore-Goad, who says lymph

nodes in her groin were so painful that her brothers and sisters used

to have to carry her upstairs. She was diagnosed at age 12 with

chronic-fatigue syndrome.

Over the years, doctors have treated her symptoms, like intense

headaches and severe pain, but the illness persists. She has had her

gallbladder, spleen, and appendix removed because they became infected.

She tried an experimental drug that she says gave her relief for years,

but she then started experiencing side effects and had to stop taking

it. Recently the illness has become worse; she began suffering seizures

and can no longer drive.

Sitting on the couch next to her husband, whom she married six

months ago, Ms. Whittemore-Goad says the news that she is infected with

XMRV " made everything that has happened to me make sense. " Goad,

her husband, said he felt relieved knowing " now we can find a way to

treat and hopefully cure it. " For both of them, the discovery of the

virus is life-changing. There are more than 10 families in the group

where family members also tested positive for XMRV. Members of the

Whittemore family are now b

From: Bill klimas <klimas_bill>

Subject: Re: Did an article get published yet?

groups (DOT) com

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 10:34 AM

I did a google news search on likely terms. I did come across thai article that

is spot on on CSF but nothing on

http://www.american chronicle. com/articles/ view/120823