Re: WSJ Article on XMRV

[Guest guest]

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas and/or feedback about a rash my

daughter has on her face. She has a red dermatitis looking rash on her chin

now spreading to her cheeks and around her eyes are very red. Her " doctor "

said she just has irritated skin and recommended Cetaphil. It has gotten

worse since then. Any thoughts? She supposedly has no allergies. She is

taking supplements and is GFCF but no medications.

_____

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Bill

klimas

Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 4:14 PM

Cc: pandas_autism

Subject: WSJ Article on XMRV

Great article today in the Wall Street Journal.

In that many can not access this I have cut and pasted it here.

Scientists are racing to develop tests for a retrovirus called XMRV, which

could

be used to determine if the blood supply is tainted and to assess how many

people may be infected.

The impetus behind the drive is a paper published in the journal Science

last

year that reported a link between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome. Public

health officials were alarmed that close to 4% of healthy people used as

controls in the study were infected with XMRV. That could mean as many as 10

million Americans are infected.

XMRV has gotten a lot of attention because, like HIV, it is a retrovirus.

This

means the virus cannot be eradicated from the body, only controlled. There

is

some preliminary evidence that XMRV may be transmitted sexually or through

transfusions. While the retrovirus has been linked to certain diseases,

scientists don't yet know if it actually causes any disease.

View Full ImageCeveland Clinic

Right, XMRV; left, cross-section of the retrovirus.

The virus doesn't appear to replicate as frequently as HIV, making it

challenging to detect. How labs handle blood samples before they test for

XMRV

may have an impact on results, some researchers believe. Some labs haven't

been

able to find it in people with chronic fatigue syndrome or prostate cancer,

which have both been linked to the retrovirus. There has also been debate

over

the criteria used to define patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. These

issues

have made it challenging to come to a consensus on how many people are

actually

infected and whether or not XMRV poses a health risk.

Tests are in the works at a number of labs, including the Centers for

Disease

Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute as well as Abbott

Diagnostics, a division of Abbott Laboratories, and Gen-Probe Inc. Roche

Diagnostics says it expects to have a test for research purposes ready in

months. Busch, director of the Blood Systems Research Institute in

San

Francisco and a member of a federally funded blood-working group studying

the

potential impact on the blood supply, says the group pushed for companies to

get

involved early on in developing XMRV tests because they have technology that

allows them to screen thousands of samples quickly. This kind of capacity

" is

critical to support our research studies and resolve the questions about

XMRV, "

Dr. Busch says.

Various labs have their own tests but not everyone has been able to find

XMRV in

patients. If it turns out that XMRV is associated with diseases, there will

be a

need to screen large numbers of people and fast, reliable methods to test

for

it.

A key challenge is that these are still early days in understanding XMRV.

Researchers usually calibrate tests against clinical samples that everyone

agrees are positive and negative for the virus. A successful test would

correctly determine which samples are infected. In the case of XMRV, there

isn't

yet scientific consensus. Some labs have said they cannot find XMRV in blood

samples from patients that other labs have deemed positive.

To get around that problem, researchers at Abbott, Cleveland Clinic and

Emory

University created their own positive samples by using blood from monkeys

that

were infected with XMRV in the lab. " There is always doubt about human

samples,

but there are no ifs, ands, or buts about the animals being infected, " says

Silverman of Cleveland Clinic, whose lab is working with Abbott and

receives research funding from the company. Dr. Silverman also could receive

royalty payments from Abbott because of XMRV patents licensed to the

company.

Researchers from the three institutions developed tests that identify

antibodies

to three key proteins of XMRV, or xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related

virus. The presence of antibodies indicates exposure to the virus.

Walter Kierans of Abbott Diagnostics says they were able to find virus in

the

blood of the rhesus macaque monkeys immediately after being infected, but

that

amount was virtually undetectable in the blood within a few weeks. This

could

provide one explanation for why it has been hard for some labs to find the

virus

in the blood of patients. Low levels of virus doesn't mean that XMRV isn't

harmful, Dr. Kierans said. Another retrovirus, HTLV, is also found in low

levels

in the blood but causes leukemia in some infected people.

Bagni, a scientist with a government contractor working with the NCI,

developed an XMRV antibody test using blood from patients with chronic

fatigue

syndrome provided by the Whittemore- Institute in Reno, Nev., whose

researchers led the team that published the Science paper. For healthy

controls,

Dr. Bagni used blood from healthy blood donors whose blood tested negative

for

known pathogens typically screened for by blood banks.

To be declared positive, the blood had to show antibodies for three or more

XMRV

proteins. The test was able to detect XMRV but it will likely be refined

once

more clinical samples become available, Dr. Bagni said. She cautioned that

the

presence of antibodies doesn't determine if someone has an active infection.

Antibodies mean that someone was exposed to the virus at some point in time.

Kearney, an NCI researcher, took a test she developed for HIV and

adapted

it to measure the amounts of XMRV in patients' blood. The test, called

X-SCA, is

so sensitive that it can pick up a single particle of XMRV in a milliliter

of

blood. She says the test could be useful in the treatment of patients

infected

with XMRV because the test can measure viral loads before and after therapy.

Carl Hull, president and CEO of Gen-Probe, which has been working with the

XMRV

blood-working group, says the company has an early version test that looks

for

the genetic material of XMRV in the blood. There is a window between when

someone is infected and when the body starts making antibodies that can be

picked up by testing. Gen-Probe says its test enables detection very early,

without waiting for signs of an immune response.

Mr. Hull says the test can be run on an instrument that allows for high

volume

testing, which could be useful in screening blood donors. " We can run 1,000

samples in 14 hours, " he says.

Kortschak of Roche Molecular Diagnostics says Roche is still in the

earliest stages of developing a research test. He said Roche wants more

" specific proof that XMRV is a virus of concern and it is possible to

transmit

through blood transfusions. "

Another effort attempts to find XMRV specifically in men with prostate

cancer

because some research has linked the virus to that disease. Studies have

found

the virus in prostate-cancer tissue, but Klein, a prostate-cancer

surgeon

at Cleveland Clinic, says doctors want a way to avoid having to do tissue

biopsies. Instead, researchers in Dr. Klein's and Dr. Silverman's labs,

developed a test that can detect XMRV genetic material in urine. Biopsies

sample

only a small part of the prostate and can miss cancer. A urine test that

looks

at secretions from the whole prostate potentially could be more

comprehensive.

In data presented by the Cleveland Clinic researchers at an NIH XMRV

workshop in

September, 26% of 120 prostate-cancer patients had XMRV in the urine,

compared

with 8.5% of healthy controls.

Now that so many researchers have developed early versions of different

tests,

the next step is to see how they work outside a research setting. Dr. Busch

says

the federal blood working group is creating a set of positive and negative

clinical samples that all labs can use, and has sent out blood to various

labs

to use as they fine-tune their tests.

The working group is developing a protocol that instructs labs on how to

handle

and process the blood, he says. For instance, discrepancies in the number of

days that elapse between the time the blood is drawn and tested could make a

difference in results, Dr. Busch says.

" When there is a new agent that we don't know a lot about, it's always a

process, " he says.

Write to Amy Dockser Marcus at amy.marcus@...

<mailto:amy.marcus%40wsj.com>

[Guest guest]

Your daughter could have eczema, but would need a full test study done by a

dermatologist to determine if she has eczema, and also what she is having

allergic reaction to. I had a similar problem and my dermatologist found I

indeed had eczema.

WSJ Article on XMRV

Great article today in the Wall Street Journal.

In that many can not access this I have cut and pasted it here.

Scientists are racing to develop tests for a retrovirus called XMRV, which

could

be used to determine if the blood supply is tainted and to assess how many

people may be infected.

The impetus behind the drive is a paper published in the journal Science

last

year that reported a link between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome. Public

health officials were alarmed that close to 4% of healthy people used as

controls in the study were infected with XMRV. That could mean as many as 10

million Americans are infected.

XMRV has gotten a lot of attention because, like HIV, it is a retrovirus.

This

means the virus cannot be eradicated from the body, only controlled. There

is

some preliminary evidence that XMRV may be transmitted sexually or through

transfusions. While the retrovirus has been linked to certain diseases,

scientists don't yet know if it actually causes any disease.

View Full ImageCeveland Clinic

Right, XMRV; left, cross-section of the retrovirus.

The virus doesn't appear to replicate as frequently as HIV, making it

challenging to detect. How labs handle blood samples before they test for

XMRV

may have an impact on results, some researchers believe. Some labs haven't

been

able to find it in people with chronic fatigue syndrome or prostate cancer,

which have both been linked to the retrovirus. There has also been debate

over

the criteria used to define patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. These

issues

have made it challenging to come to a consensus on how many people are

actually

infected and whether or not XMRV poses a health risk.

Tests are in the works at a number of labs, including the Centers for

Disease

Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute as well as Abbott

Diagnostics, a division of Abbott Laboratories, and Gen-Probe Inc. Roche

Diagnostics says it expects to have a test for research purposes ready in

months. Busch, director of the Blood Systems Research Institute in

San

Francisco and a member of a federally funded blood-working group studying

the

potential impact on the blood supply, says the group pushed for companies to

get

involved early on in developing XMRV tests because they have technology that

allows them to screen thousands of samples quickly. This kind of capacity

" is

critical to support our research studies and resolve the questions about

XMRV, "

Dr. Busch says.

Various labs have their own tests but not everyone has been able to find

XMRV in

patients. If it turns out that XMRV is associated with diseases, there will

be a

need to screen large numbers of people and fast, reliable methods to test

for

it.

A key challenge is that these are still early days in understanding XMRV.

Researchers usually calibrate tests against clinical samples that everyone

agrees are positive and negative for the virus. A successful test would

correctly determine which samples are infected. In the case of XMRV, there

isn't

yet scientific consensus. Some labs have said they cannot find XMRV in blood

samples from patients that other labs have deemed positive.

To get around that problem, researchers at Abbott, Cleveland Clinic and

Emory

University created their own positive samples by using blood from monkeys

that

were infected with XMRV in the lab. " There is always doubt about human

samples,

but there are no ifs, ands, or buts about the animals being infected, " says

Silverman of Cleveland Clinic, whose lab is working with Abbott and

receives research funding from the company. Dr. Silverman also could receive

royalty payments from Abbott because of XMRV patents licensed to the

company.

Researchers from the three institutions developed tests that identify

antibodies

to three key proteins of XMRV, or xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related

virus. The presence of antibodies indicates exposure to the virus.

Walter Kierans of Abbott Diagnostics says they were able to find virus in

the

blood of the rhesus macaque monkeys immediately after being infected, but

that

amount was virtually undetectable in the blood within a few weeks. This

could

provide one explanation for why it has been hard for some labs to find the

virus

in the blood of patients. Low levels of virus doesn't mean that XMRV isn't

harmful, Dr. Kierans said. Another retrovirus, HTLV, is also found in low

levels

in the blood but causes leukemia in some infected people.

Bagni, a scientist with a government contractor working with the NCI,

developed an XMRV antibody test using blood from patients with chronic

fatigue

syndrome provided by the Whittemore- Institute in Reno, Nev., whose

researchers led the team that published the Science paper. For healthy

controls,

Dr. Bagni used blood from healthy blood donors whose blood tested negative

for

known pathogens typically screened for by blood banks.

To be declared positive, the blood had to show antibodies for three or more

XMRV

proteins. The test was able to detect XMRV but it will likely be refined

once

more clinical samples become available, Dr. Bagni said. She cautioned that

the

presence of antibodies doesn't determine if someone has an active infection.

Antibodies mean that someone was exposed to the virus at some point in time.

Kearney, an NCI researcher, took a test she developed for HIV and

adapted

it to measure the amounts of XMRV in patients' blood. The test, called

X-SCA, is

so sensitive that it can pick up a single particle of XMRV in a milliliter

of

blood. She says the test could be useful in the treatment of patients

infected

with XMRV because the test can measure viral loads before and after therapy.

Carl Hull, president and CEO of Gen-Probe, which has been working with the

XMRV

blood-working group, says the company has an early version test that looks

for

the genetic material of XMRV in the blood. There is a window between when

someone is infected and when the body starts making antibodies that can be

picked up by testing. Gen-Probe says its test enables detection very early,

without waiting for signs of an immune response.

Mr. Hull says the test can be run on an instrument that allows for high

volume

testing, which could be useful in screening blood donors. " We can run 1,000

samples in 14 hours, " he says.

Kortschak of Roche Molecular Diagnostics says Roche is still in the

earliest stages of developing a research test. He said Roche wants more

" specific proof that XMRV is a virus of concern and it is possible to

transmit

through blood transfusions. "

Another effort attempts to find XMRV specifically in men with prostate

cancer

because some research has linked the virus to that disease. Studies have

found

the virus in prostate-cancer tissue, but Klein, a prostate-cancer

surgeon

at Cleveland Clinic, says doctors want a way to avoid having to do tissue

biopsies. Instead, researchers in Dr. Klein's and Dr. Silverman's labs,

developed a test that can detect XMRV genetic material in urine. Biopsies

sample

only a small part of the prostate and can miss cancer. A urine test that

looks

at secretions from the whole prostate potentially could be more

comprehensive.

In data presented by the Cleveland Clinic researchers at an NIH XMRV

workshop in

September, 26% of 120 prostate-cancer patients had XMRV in the urine,

compared

with 8.5% of healthy controls.

Now that so many researchers have developed early versions of different

tests,

the next step is to see how they work outside a research setting. Dr. Busch

says

the federal blood working group is creating a set of positive and negative

clinical samples that all labs can use, and has sent out blood to various

labs

to use as they fine-tune their tests.

The working group is developing a protocol that instructs labs on how to

handle

and process the blood, he says. For instance, discrepancies in the number of

days that elapse between the time the blood is drawn and tested could make a

difference in results, Dr. Busch says.

" When there is a new agent that we don't know a lot about, it's always a

process, " he says.

Write to Amy Dockser Marcus at amy.marcus@...

<mailto:amy.marcus%40wsj.com>;