Addendum to article 'Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome'

In October 2009, first direct isolation of infectious xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) was reported. In that study, the scientists used a combination of biological amplification and molecular enhancement techniques to detect XMRV in more than 75% of 101 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Controversy has arisen since the publishing of the report, with the publication of several studies that failed to detect XMRV infection in their CFS patient populations. In this addenda, the original authors further detail the multiple detection methods used in order to observe XMRV infection in the CFS cohort.

The results indicate that PCR from DNA of unstimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells is the least sensitive method for detection of XMRV in subjects’ blood. The use of more than one type of assay is advocated in order to determine the frequency of XMRV infection in patient cohorts in future studies of the relevance of XMRV to human disease.

Full article:

Mikovits, J et al (2010) 'Detection of an infectious retrovirus, XMRV, in blood cells of patients
with chronic fatigue syndrome', Virulence, vol. 1, no. 5 [Full Article, September/October 2010].

Original article:

Lombardi, et al (2009) 'Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Science, vol. 326, no. 5952, pp. 585-589 [Full Article].