Murine AIDS and MLVs

[noddyboddy]

Has any one investigated whether the variants of MLV/XMRV found by WPI and Alter are the same or similar to the MLV that causes MAIDS -- murine acquired immune deficiency syndrome?

In reading about MAIDS, many of the problems caused by MAIDS in mice sound similar to the Canadian Clinical Consensus description of CFS. Complications such as viral infections of the heart and heart failure in the mice parallel similar problems in a subset of people with CFS. In fact, some doctors have gone so far as to assert their belief that CFS /is/ heart failure. The various problems with enlarged lymph glands, vulnerability to opportunistic viruses, immune deficiencies, cancers, etc, in MAIDS are similar enough to CFS to make me wonder if it is a viable model for the kind of disease we might expect to see in people infected with the murine viruses.

Does anyone know anything about this that might help clarify whether this is an area of concern, or if not, why not?

 

[Daffodil]

noddy...i think dr. jolicoeur in montreal is investigating this. he has studied MAIDS and is now studying XMRV/MLV's in CFS.

 

[anciendaze]

Noddy, I think there is some similarity to a number of retroviruses that impair immune response. You might also consider feline infections, which have a natural connection with mice, FLV and FIV, which causes FAIDS. These are both much less similar to HMRV than MLV.

 

[Bob]

Hi noddyboddy,

I don't know much about MAIDS but it is interesting that the 'Murine-AIDS-related-virus' (is this the virus that causes MAIDS?) is shown in this phylogenetic tree, which is extracted from the recent NIH/FDA paper...

http://www.cfids.org/mlv/phylogenetic-tree.pdf

The Murine-AIDS-related-virus is very closely situated next to XMRV in diagram B, on the right hand side. I don't know what the significance of this is, except that their gag gene sequences seem to be closely related.

My understanding is that the phylogenetic trees are created by a computer program which calculates the position of the viruses on the tree, based on the gene sequences that are entered into the computer.
In the PNAS paper there are 3 different phylogenetic tree diagrams which, in each tree, place the different viruses in slightly different relative positions. I believe that this is due to slightly different sections of the gag gene sequences being used to create each tree. (That's my amateur understanding of it anyway.)

 

[anciendaze]

Bob has the gist of it right. The large differences in structure of the two trees he mentions suggest this is not simple Mendelian genetics. Different pieces of the same genome might even have different ancestry.

Before we get too far afield, there is a different message I take from all of these attempts to construct phylogenies: need more data. In particular, we need complete genomes from as many isolates as budgets will allow. The Lo/Alter groups completely sequenced the sequences they amplified, but did not sequence any full genome. Judy M's 500 isolates would be a good project, if money were available.

 

[Daffodil]

jeeez...looks like we are light years away from effective treatment

 

[jimbob]

We've got to find a way to inform the general public about this retrovirus, 99% of them don't know anything! The media isn't getting it done, so we're going to have to find a way to get the word out! 7% should be enough to scare them into making a fuss and in turn would get us the funding that is needed. I'm going to try craigs list and anywhere else that I can to inform the uninformed.

 

[Bob]

jeeez...looks like we are light years away from effective treatment

Not necessarily Daffodil... If they can trial an existing anti-retroviral, or a combination of them, or any other existing anti-virals, that actually leads to recovery, or leads to a partial recovery, then off-label (is that the right term?) treatment might be a year or two away. I get the feeling that Judy's aim is to get these trials running as soon as she possibly can.
Although, I agree that a year or two will seem like light years to many of us.