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 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.

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.

Learn more

 * Wikipedia - Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus
 * 2012, XMRV Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Update
 * 2009, XMRV explained on Nevada Newsmakers October 2009