William Atkins
Sunday, 11 October 2009 20:10
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
A U.S. study finds that xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMLV), which has been associated with the occurrence of prostate cancer, could be linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). If proven true, the research could eventually lead to an effective diagnosis and treatment of the debilitating disease.
A team led by Dr.
Judy A. Mikovits, from the
Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro Immune Disease (Reno, Nevada), studied the relationship between CFS, sometimes called 'yuppie flu,' and the virus XMRV, or xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus.
Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, sometimes shortened to xenotropic MuLV-related virus, is a recently identified gammaretrovirus.
Its name refers to its similarity to xenotropic murine leukemia viruses even though it displays various distincitve differences. It has also been linked to prostate cancer.
The results of the study were published on Thursday, October 8, 2009, in the journal
Science. The article is entitled “
Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”
It is authored by Vincent C. Lombardi, Francis W. Ruscetti, Jaydip Das Gupta, Max A. Pfost, Kathryn S. Hagen, Daniel L. Peterson, Sandra K. Ruscetti, Rachel K. Bagni, Cari Petrow-Sadowski, Bert Gold, Michael Dean, Robert H. Silverman, and Judy A. Mikovits.
According to the authors, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) afflicts about 17 million people worldwide. But, the reason it affects these people is unknown medically.
The Mikovits team analyzed 101 patients of CFS. Specifically, they looked at the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from these CFS patients.
Page two states the conclusions of the study.
