Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is "a laboratory-derived mouse virus that was generated through recombination between two endogenous murine retroviruses during propagation of a prostate cancer xenograft in the mid-1990’s."

Chronic fatigue syndrome
An October 2009 paper by Vincent Lombardi, Francis Ruscetti, Jaydip Das Gupta, Max Pfost, Kathryn S. Hagen, Daniel Peterson, Sandra Ruscetti, Rachel K. Bagni, Cari Petrow-Sadowski, Bert Gold, Michael Dean, Robert Silverman, and Judy Mikovits, entitled "Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", claimed to have found a link between chronic fatigue syndrome and the presence of the retrovirus. The paper's primary authors were at that time based at the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) in Reno, Nevada, United States. The WPI soon began offering a controversial commercial XMRV testing service.

Other labs around the world were unable to detect XMRV in their patient samples. In July 2011 the journal issued an editorial expression of concern about the paper.

The paper was fully retracted in December 2011 by the journal.

One of the key scientists involved in efforts to clarify the situation surrounding XMRV, and eventually to debunk the science, was Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York.

Doctor Mikovits has maintained her view that XMRV is a public health risk and documents those views in her book Plague with co-author Kent Heckenlively.

Mainstream science considers XMRV to be a laboratory artefact and not a threat to human health or related to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Notable studies

 * 2016, Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus (XMRV) and the Safety of the Blood Supply
 * 2017, XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable

Studies unable to detect XMRV in ME/CFS patients

 * 2010, (UK), Absence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in UK patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2010, (Netherlands), Prevalence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome in the Netherlands: retrospective analysis of samples from an established cohort - (Full Text)
 * 2010, (China), Failure to detect Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in Chinese patients with chronic fatigue syndrome - (Full Text)
 * 2010, (Germany), No Evidence for XMRV in German CFS and MS Patients with Fatigue Despite the Ability of the Virus to Infect Human Blood Cells In Vitro - (Full Text)
 * 2011, (Japan), No association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus with prostate cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome in Japan - (Full Text)
 * 2011, (US), Absence of XMRV retrovirus and other murine leukemia virus-related viruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2011, (US), Failure to Detect XMRV-Specific Antibodies in the Plasma of CFS Patients Using Highly Sensitive Chemiluminescence Immunoassays.
 * 2011, (Canada), No Evidence for XMRV Nucleic Acids, Infectious Virus or Anti-XMRV Antibodies in Canadian Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (Full Text)
 * 2012, (US), 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. (Full Text)
 * 2014, (Latvia), No evidence of XMRV provirus sequences in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and individuals with unspecified encephalopathy (Full Text)
 * 2014, (US), No association found between the detection of either xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus or polytropic murine leukemia virus and chronic fatigue syndrome in a blinded, multi-site, prospective study by the establishment and use of the SolveCFS BioBank (Full Text)
 * 2017, (Italy), XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable (Full Text)

Learn more

 * Wikipedia - Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus
 * 2011, False Positive (Science Magazine)
 * 2012, XMRV Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Update (Science Based Medicine)

Abbie Smith ERV blog series of XMRV research

 * Jun 14 2010, XMRV and antiretrovirals
 * Oct 15 2010, XMRV and Autism: Best conflict of interest EVAH!
 * Apr 19 2010, XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome: A Tale of Two Laboratories
 * Feb 25 2011, XMRV = Lab contaminant.
 * May 31 2011, XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome: So long, and thanks for all the lulz, Part I
 * Jun 1 2011, XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome: So long, and thanks for all the lulz, Part II
 * Jun 3 2011, XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome: So long, and thanks for all the lulz, Part III
 * Sep 26 2011, XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome: Isnt that weird?


 * All blogs tagged XMRV

Nevada newsmakers report on XMRV

 * 2009, XMRV explained on Nevada Newsmakers October 2009