A Multicenter Blinded Analysis Indicates No Association between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and either Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus or Polytropic Murine Leukemia Virus

Abstract

The disabling disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) has been linked in two independent studies to infection with xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and polytropic murine leukemia virus (pMLV). Although the associations were not confirmed in subsequent studies by other investigators, patients continue to question the consensus of the scientific community in rejecting the validity of the association. Here we report blinded analysis of peripheral blood from a rigorously characterized, geographically diverse population of 147 patients with CFS/ME and 146 healthy subjects by the investigators describing the original association. This analysis reveals no evidence of either XMRV or pMLV infection.

Lack of evidence for human infection with Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in the Brazilian Amazon basin

“…Furthermore, the absolute lack of XMRV in the various groups investigated herein challenges the results of previous studies that showed a high prevalence of XMRV in human populations and alleged an association with prostate cancer. This study supports the conclusions of studies that eventually led to the retraction of the original study reporting the association between XMRV and human diseases [19][20][21] .…”

“…The present available data led to the retraction of the original data reporting an association between XMRV and human diseases [19][20][21] . A wide variety of infectious agents, many of which are capable of infecting humans, are endemic to the Brazilian Amazon.…”

Chronic fatigue syndrome – an update

“…Even though they provided strong evidence for this hypothesis, subsequent studies failed to reproduce these results. [31][32][33] Lo et al studied the role of another virus, murine leukemia virus (MLV), in CFS. 34 They detected the virus in 32 of 37 CFS patients (86.5%) compared with only 3 of 44 (6.8%) healthy volunteer blood donors.…”

Hva er egentlig myalgisk encefalopati?

“…Funnet har senere vist seg å skyldes et laboratorievirus, og forskning i ettertid har konkludert med at det ikke finnes noen holdepunkter for at XMRV kan utløse CFS/ME (21) .…”