xmrv
sa smith | September 16, 2010I am so sick of this crap. BUT! A group in China made a really neat Real-Time PCR strategy for detecting XMRV, so Im still gonna write about it :)
Failure to detect xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in Chinese patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
Taqman Real-Time PCR is one of my most favoritest things ever. PCR is 'specific', in that we use primers designed to detect specific sequences in a sample. But its not really all that specific. The primers you use dont need to match up perfectly to the sequence you are interested in. Scientists capitalize on this to introduce…
sa smith | August 23, 2010So, a while back, there was HUUUUUGE DRAMA. BIG HUBUB. Because a study that CONFIRMED the initial findings regarding XMRV and CFS was being HELD UP by TEH GOVERNMENT! Conspiracy, conspiracy, yada yada yada.
Apparently, this was that paper:
Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors
I can honestly say I was really excited for this paper to come out. I wanted to see 1) what this group did to replicate those findings that no other lab could do, and 2) see the same results come from samples that had never seen Judy…
sa smith | August 12, 2010Lack of Detection of XMRV in Seminal Plasma from HIV-1 Infected Men in The Netherlands
These folks looked in the semen of HIV-1(+) men for XMRV-- because of XMRVs association with prostate cancer, and retroviruses as STDs, and because HIV+ people are more susceptible to infections than HIV- people.
29 homosexual men (not on any antiretrovirals), 25 heterosexual men (most, not all on antiretrovirals)-- no XMRV in 93 semen samples. Even though some of the men were on antiretrovirals, the number shouldnt have been zero. They had a built in control: HIV-1. HIV-1 was found in most of the…
sa smith | July 1, 2010The big XMRV news last week was that the NIH had confirmed the original WPI paper regarding XMRV and CFS. Or, as sue so eloquently put it:
http://www.mmdnewswire.com/xmrv-9040.html
HA read it and weep you stupid cunt
Unfortunately for the oh-so-civil sue, I wasnt entirely surprised at someone else in the US finding the XMRV-CFS connection (see my October 23, 2009 post on the topic). I am completely open to the idea that XMRV is endemic in the US, and is better able to infect certain immunocompromised citizens, which may or may not cause or perpetuate diseases of some kind. However,…
sa smith | June 14, 2010H/T to The Lay Scientist for getting my butt in gear to write this post.
Imagine you arent feeling well. You go to the doctor, they run some tests, and it turns out you have a tumor. Well... your physicians arent sure if you have a tumor or not, but they sent some of your blood to a lab, and a non-FDA approved test said you might have a tumor. Maybe. When your blood was sent to other labs, they couldnt find anything.
And even if you do have a tumor, you have no reason to believe that its actually causing a disease-- it very well could be benign. They dont know how its effecting you, if at…
sa smith | June 8, 2010Pop science journalists are finally getting a bit wary of the XMRV-->CFS story. The first to stick her neck out is Trine Tsouderos. You know Trine. She wrote that great piece calling out Dr. Oz, and the krazies at Age of Autism HATE HER.
Trine is super cool.
So I was a little annoyed she wasnt as ruthless when it comes to Judy Mikovits and the WPI. This article seemed to be more like "Heres what Judy says, heres what other scientists say. Heres what Judy says, heres what other scientists say. etc etc." Not the more pointed jabs Trine took with autism woo and Dr. Ozs silliness.…
sa smith | May 14, 2010A while back I wrote about how the lead researcher at the Whittemore Peterson Institute, Judy Mikovits, is speaking at Autismone, a huge anti-vax rally in Chicago later this month.
I thought Judy was just a crank. Dime a dozen, whatevs.
Turns out things are worse than that.
Much much worse than that.
Its cranks all the way down.
Vincent Lombardi, first author on the original 'XMRV causes Chronic Fatigue' Science paper, founded some weird testing company several years back. This weird testing company was then bought by Harvey Whittemore (father of The Princess That Cant Be Named), and turned…
sa smith | May 5, 2010Laboratory #3--
Huh.
This letter was written by the lead author of the Netherlands study on XMRV in CFS on April 22.
Here it is (looks at calendar), May 5th, and I have yet to see this 'response' published online anywhere but here.
Its so weird that the Whittemore Peterson Institute didnt post it online yet, considering how 'Web 2.0' they are.
Huh.
I mean, I dont even know how I got it, and I got it and published it online. What is holding up the WPI? I dont understand...
Dear dr. Whittemore,
Apparently you wrote a letter to dr. McClure in which you make serious allegations about us (…
tsmith | April 26, 2010Student guest post by Jay Watson
Tired again? Perhaps it's the crappy weather, because you're sure that you've been getting enough sleep. After all, you can't remember the last time you spent less than ten hours in bed per night. Hopefully it's not mono; one of your friends had it a few months ago and it's all but knocked her out. However, you soon realize that you've only talked to her on the phone since she got engaged, so there's no way that's it. It's strange, even everyday activities like running errands has turned into something utterly exhausting. As you consider the reasons as…
sa smith | April 19, 2010LABORATORY #1--
Dr. Myra McClure recently did an interview with ABC Australia on XMRV an what its doing in humans. You probably dont know who she is-- shes just a normal scientist, like the thousands of others going in to work every day that youve never heard of. *shrug* Apparently we are supposed to believe that this woman is a liar, a fraud, a cheat, and accepting bribes, and while that is difficult to believe with any normal, average scientist, its even more difficult to believe after reading the transcript of her interview.
I would quote some 'interesting' or 'controversial' parts, but…
sa smith | March 23, 2010Oh for fucks sake.
Just after Jenny McCarthys 'keynote address' at an 'autism' conference sponsored by AUTISMONE and Generation Rescue, Judy Mikovits is going to talk to everyone about XMRV (3-4 pm).
Judy, you are one pathetic excuse of a 'scientist'.
sa smith | March 4, 2010Two things I didnt intend on writing about on ERV more than a few times, but turned into repeat guests: XMRV and Vpu.
Theyve finally come together.
Susceptibility of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) to retroviral restriction factors
Know how I was talking about intrinsic immunity yesterday?
Well, some scientists wondered how the heck XMRV was replicating in humans (especially human PBMCs), when other murine gammaretroviruses are restricted in humans because of our intrinsic immunity: Tetherin, APOBEC, Trim5. So they set out to investigate what effect (if any) these human…
sa smith | February 26, 2010Study from the 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
CFS/ME patients plus age/sex/neighborhood matched controls (patients brought in friends that lived in the same area-- environment might play a role).
32 ME/CFS patients
43 controls
0 XMRV present in PBMC, using reagents verified in this paper (integrase) and this paper (gag- the same ones WPI used).
Cut/Paste summary:
A limitation of our study is that the numbers of patients and…
sa smith | February 22, 2010When scientists are creating tests to detect viruses, they need to balance two factors:
Sensitivity
Specificity
A 'sensitive' test is no good if it cross-reacts with other proteins/viruses/antibodies. A test with high 'specificity' is no good if you miss 3 out of 10 infections.
Of course, then you need to worry about cost (a perfect test is unusable if no one can afford it) and speed (acute diseases need fast diagnoses, and who wants to wait 3 months to find out if they have a life-altering chronic disease?), and other factors.
So scientists normally use tests that view a putative disease…
sa smith | February 16, 2010Shorter "Absence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in UK patients with chronic fatigue syndrome":
170 more CFS samples from two different cohorts.
395 more healthy controls.
No Simon Wesseley.
No XMRV by regular PCR, boosted PCR, or qRT-PCR on DNA or cDNA.
No meaningful anti-XMRV antibodies.
Still no XMRV in the Europe.
Longer "Absence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in UK patients with chronic fatigue syndrome":
Basic PCR--
They extracted genomic DNA from white blood cells with a Qiagen kit. This is about stock-standard as it comes. They then used the…
sa smith | February 2, 2010I hesitate to write about this, as Im sure its going to be taken and amplified by Teh Crazy... but I suppose I better just get a head start...
Isolation of an Infectious Endogenous Retrovirus in a Proportion of Live Attenuated Vaccines for Pets
Well shit.
Researchers took a dozen cat/dog vaccines from manufacturers in Japan and Britain, and looked for a specific cat endogenous retrovirus, RD-114. Why this cat ERV? Cause the viruses in these vaccines are passaged in cat cell lines to attenuate them. Cat cell lines that contain and can produce ERV RD-114. Whats RD-114? Welp, um, its…
sa smith | February 1, 2010So here are my answers to The Brainstorm Challenge.
Some of you got real damn close to the 'answers' I was thinking of, but you all missed a great big one (which I think will make sense to you after I bring it up hehe!)
1-- Lets say youve isolated white blood cells from CFS patients. You treat these cells with chemicals that interfere with normal DNA/histone methylation.
What do you think will happen?
Do you think that is a good diagnostic test for retroviral infection?
The Reno groups decision to use this as a diagnostic test is absolutely baffling. The idiomatic definition of 'epigenetics…
sa smith | January 24, 2010While listening to Judy Mikovits presentation to CFS patients on Friday, I took a few notes.
Well, I took a few notes in between screaming at my computer, slamming my head into my keyboard, and popping Xanax like they were Skittles.
Ive got a few questions for my regular readers, because I genuinely believe readers of my blog are smarter than Judy Mikovits.
1-- Lets say youve isolated white blood cells from CFS patients. You treat these cells with chemicals that interfere with normal DNA/histone methylation.
What do you think will happen?
Do you think that is a good diagnostic test for…
sa smith | January 20, 2010This is insanity, people.
Scientific insanity.
Moved right from 'this does not make sense' and 'youre acting like a bitch' to 'this is insane'.
#1-- Lead author of the Reno XMRV-->CFS study is holding a live-streamed press conference at Hotel Mar Monte on Friday.
*blink*
This is insanity. They have no evidence connecting XMRV to CFS in anything but a casual manner, and yet she is giving a presentation/Q&A to CFS patients. Insanity.
Furthermore, the people 'hosting' this talk, ProHealth? What is this? What is this crap? Pages and pages and pages of powders and potions and crap.…
sa smith | January 13, 2010One 'insider' thing I hope ERV readers learn about science from this blag, is that in science, controversies are completely normal, everyday occurrences. Outsiders might think scientists are 'mean' when dealing with anti-vaxers/Creationists/whatever, but how we treat non-scientists manufacturing a controversy is no different than how we react to one another in a real scientific controversy.
For example, Behe feigned offense when I pointed out he was a friggin IDiot regarding HIV-1 evolution, yet technically, my response to him was muted (what got published was not my first draft *blink*).…