DeFreitas 1991 Retrovirus/CFS Study

[Summer]

Dr. Klimas Addresses the Issue

Expert Answers on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Q: Are There Two Viruses Linked With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?


Dr. Klimas: I really want to know more about what you think of the specific findings of Dr. DeFreitas. Do you think there are two retroviruses associated with Cfids? I know there needs to be more study, but do you have an educated guess as to how they interact and if they are causative or just epiphenomena?

For example, if this were solely hypocondriasis or conversion disorder, I would want to know so I could start therapy on it.
Justin Reilly

A: Dr. Klimas responds:

Elaine DeFreitass work and that of Dr. Michael Holmes of New Zealand both involved scanning electron micrographs of viruses. Their findings look a great deal like those that were published in the recent Science article by Dr. Lombardi and colleagues, which Ms. Grady wrote about in The Times,) that found a possible link between chronic fatigue syndrome and the XMRV retrovirus. Could they be looking at the same virus? I dont really know, because I am not a laboratory virologist. But it makes good sense to me.

I remember in the early 1990s a member of our laboratory, Dr. Roberto Patarca, found evidence of production of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase in our cell cultures, more evidence of an active retroviral infection. So the key thing now is for another reputable lab to find the same thing in chronic fatigue syndrome. Then we will see what happens next.

 

[jenbooks]

Gene therapy

Thanks Jen,

Does that mean they can now safely use MLV in gene therapy?

Hi Tee, well anyway it's safer as they now remove those promoter sequences. Viruses tend to surprise us, as they've been at this quite a bit longer than we have. They are also using HIV--again removing known harmful parts--as it's better than MLV. I know it sounds scary and in fact it is a bit freaky, otoh gene therapy holds much promise for curing horrible diseases and maybe eventually common ones.

 

[jenbooks]

I feel badly for Elaine DeFreitis. Her silence makes me think that this is difficult for her.

 

[starryeyes]

Thank you for the information you're giving here Jenbooks and Summer. You're helping to fill in a lot of holes and giving information that helps all this make at least more sense.

That's amazing they're using HIV now in gene therapy. I did read that MLV used in gene therapy helped most of the patients and even after those 2 unfortunate kids acquired Leukemia from it, doctors were saying they would still use the therapy on their own children if they were in that situation because the outcome is usually good.

 

[MEKoan]

I feel badly for Elaine DeFreitis. Her silence makes me think that this is difficult for her.

me too.

DeFreitas Disease

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

Rolling

Rollin, rollin, rollin,

Keep those news reports comin'.

Tina

 

[starryeyes]

Yeah, Defreitas Disease!

Yay Tina.

Check out this link. As I read it just now I remembered reading it many years ago. I thought then, 'Okay, CFS is caused by a retrovirus. Good. Now they have the info on it and they are talking about making headway on further research with it and coming up with solutions for us and then.... they dropped the ball. Fumble! But why? It seems like the NCF veered waaay off the path.

Here's the first link with highlights following. I think this article is from around 2002:

http://www.ncf-net.org/forum/ncftruths.html

The basic thing you should know is that nearly all ME/CFIDS patients have a virus called HHV-6A and inside that is a retrovirus that one researcher has named the JHK virus.

Okay, so they knew the retrovirus was piggybacking on/in other viruses just like they're now saying XMRV is probably doing.

This has been known and kept quiet as we have continued to suffer for many years.

So go back more years from 2002. How many years ago did they know this?? 1991 perhaps?

There are hundreds of papers that show that HHV-6A is the accelerating agent in AIDS. In fact, Professor Cocchetto says that "many researchers have expressed to me that ME/CFIDS resides somewhere between MS, cancer, and AIDS."

HHV-6A also contains Marek's disease (lymphomas seen in chickens) and Adenovirus gene vectors. "What the heck are these are doing in HHV-6A, we can only speculate and as Dr. Ablashi states, HHV-6A can increase EBV replication 5 to 10 fold."

Vaccines are incubated in chicken eggs and keep in mind they just stated earlier that the JHK retrovirus hides out in HHV-6A.

HHV-6A didn't show in the blood of Sophia Mirtza or her spinal fluid but when they autopsied her they found major infections of it throughout the basal ganglia of her brain. So we all may or may not have it, blood tests and spinal taps may not show it.

"The key is that HHV-6A does something that no other herpes virus does. It has been reported by Dr. Torrisi, from Italy, that it leaves no viral glycoproteins (no marks to show it's been there) on the infected cells! stated Cocchetto." By comparison, HIV has none of these capabilities.

Dr. William Carter, of Hemispherx Biopharma (# 5,958,718 on 9/99) when writing about virologic studies, wrote "I have also observed that the majority of these CFS patients are infected with herpes-6...I have also found EB (Epstein-Barr) virus in many of these CFS patients as well as a novel retrovirus similar (though different genetically) to HIV, a retrovirus causing acquired immune deficiency or AIDs.

Specimens from several CFS patients I have studied indicate the intriguing possibility of 'pseudotyping' as a means of spreading this disease. By pseudotyping, I refer, for example, to the coat of a herpes type 6 virus surrounding the genetic material for a retrovirus. This would give rise to a novel form of contagion where the infectious agent spreads epidemiologically through the population like a herpes virus but the genetic information being spread is actually that of a retrovirus...leading ultimately to mental deterioration and morbidity."

Okay.. a doctor from HEM is verifying a retrovirus and explaining how EBV is involved as well as HHV-6.. HEM are the makers of Ampligen!! Gee. It seems like bits and pieces of this article were expanded on by later researchers but I think they made the mistake of taking these facts apart instead of utilizing what was found out about the big picture.

In an earlier patent, Dr. Sidney Grossberg, a world renown virologist from the Medical College of Wisconsin, wrote (# 5,827,750 on 10/98) "The human virus on which the present invention is based has not been classified as to which virus family it belongs, but it most nearly resembles a retrovirus ....The present invention relates to the detection of the presence of an NMA (neuromyasthnia) virus that is associated with CFIDS." He goes on to talk of the "protein spikes in the envelope" which are called peplomers and these spikes are characteristic of a retrovirus. He calls this retrovirus the "JHK virus."

XMRV has protein spikes all over its envelope.

He mentions that the retrovirus that is close to the same size is called the "mouse mammary tumor virus." In his only publication on the virus, one that went unannounced by the CFIDS Association despite their funding of him.

I just want to know why the CAA didn't announce this. Is that because they were under the control of the CDC? Why aren't they or the NCF talking about these discoveries now that XMRV is out in the open?

"The human B-lymphoblastoid cell line, designated JHK-3, with pre-B-cell characteristics, chronically produces two viruses, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and JHK virus, an apparently novel retrovirus...most nearly resembling C-type retroviruses."

XMRV is a C-type retrovirus.

Professor Cocchetto admitted that the driving force behind uncovering this research was reading Hillary Johnson's Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In fact, he shared this quote from the book by Dr. Sidney Grossberg, "We may have a genetic recombination of herpes and retrovirus here." [ Ed. note: Perhaps the intriguing full truth given in Ms. Johnson's epic book was the very reason that the CAA gave it such a poor review.]

Was this information just coming from the United States? Certainly not! From Denmark, Dr. Mette Summerlund wrote on a "Type C-like human retrovirus linked to Multiple Sclerosis" and used the same language calling it "double infected with EBV and a hitherto uncharacterized human retrovirus..."

Dr Michael Holmes, from New Zealand, a name most in the CFS arena recognize, wrote in The Clinical and Scientific Basis for Myalgic Enchelphalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (1/97) that "structures consistent in size, shape and character with various stages of a Lentivirus (retrovirus) replicative cycle were observed by electron microscopy in cultures from CFS patients..."

So Denmark and New Zealand seem to have found the same retrovirus too. Wow! Where are they now?

A Lentivirus means a slowly mutating retrovirus which XMRV is. Unlike HIV which mutates very quickly, millions of times in the same patient in fact.

Going back to 1991, Dr. Elaine DeFreitas, before the CFIDS Association of America cut her funding and her research off, wrote that "These data support an association between an HTLV-II like virus and CFIDS."

We can even go back to 1959 when Dr. Bjorn Sigudsson, from the Institute for Experimental Pathology in Iceland, wrote on Icelandic Disease, now known as CFS (ME). "This incredibly intelligent soul," said Professor Cocchetto, conceived the concept that slow viral infections, in particular, the visna (sheep) retrovirus, could take a long time to do its damage before it could be seen. As he lay dying, he dictated to a colleague the similarities between visna (a retrovirus) and multiple sclerosis.

Keep in mind, CFS often presents similar to MS and MS is what they knew about back then.

So how did a mouse Leukemia retrovirus get inside of the HHV-6A virus? Could it be what I posted one page earlier about the two boys acquiring Leukemia from gene therapy?

Quote and link from that below:

“Until this report, retroviral insertion in the context of gene therapy has been considered an untargeted and largely random event,”

http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/0310/106.htm

 

[starryeyes]

A bit more on the JHK retrovirus discovered in CFS in 2001.

From the CDC:

Characterization of a previously uncharacterized retrovirus. Retroviruses represent an important group of infectious agents that have been suggested as having an association with CFS. Recently, Dr. Sidney Grossberg has isolated an apparently novel retrovirus called JHK virus, from a human B-lymphoblastoid cell line established from the peripheral mononuclear cells of a CFS patient. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated that a subset of CFS patient sera will bind to the JHK virus particle. It is important to determine if a true association exists with all or a subset of CFS cases. To do this will require development of JHK-specific reagents and appropriate assay systems. Funds have been awarded to the Medical College of Milwaukee - Wisconsin to purify the JHK retrovirus for cloning and sequence analysis. Goals are to characterize the virus and its relatedness to other human and animal retroviruses and to develop reagents that can be used in further seroepidemiologic studies.

http://www.co-cure.org/CDC-CFS.htm

Sidney E Grossberg, Professor
Medical College Of Wisconsin

Our goal is to determine by morphologic, genetic, biochemical, and immunologic means whether the JHK virus, an enveloped, 80-nm, RNA virus produced constitutively by a B lymphoblastoid cell line established in our laboratory, is a new human retrovirus.

Since the JHK-3 cell line also contains Epstein- Barr virus DNA and nuclear antigen and a 196-nm viral particle of unusual morphology, this particle will be identified and its relationship determined, if any, to JHK viral infection. To achieve these aims we intend to (i) analyze viral fine structure by electron microscopy; (ii) clone JHK virus by transfection; (iii) characterize the viral RNA; (iv) clone a cDNA copy of the viral RNA for sequencing and creation of probes; (v) clone the reverse transcriptase gene by PCR; (vi) produce antiviral polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies; (vii) identify specific JHK viral antigens; (viii) test for specific antibodies in selected patient groups; and (ix) probe, as the reagents are developed, for the presence of the virus in peripheral mononuclear cells of selected patients by appropriate hybridizations and after DNA amplification by the polymerase chain reaction.

Grants awarded to Sidney E Grossberg

JHK VIRUS

Sidney E Grossberg, Professor
Medical College Of Wisconsin 8701 Watertown Plank Rd Milwaukee, Wi 532260509

Grant 3R01AI032710-03S3 from National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases, IRG: ARRC

http://www.researchgrantdatabase.com/g/1R01AI032710-01/HUMAN-JHK-VIRUS/

Whatever happened to these goals? Were they carried out? What came of this?

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

Very

This is what I have to say about that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlm4O_ltgtk

Tina

 

[JerryH]

Grossberg found something

"2003: Raisch Kevin P; Pizzato Massimo; Sun Hai Yuan; Takeuchi Yasuhiro; Cashdollar L William; Grossberg Sidney E
Molecular cloning, complete sequence, and biological characterization of a xenotropic murine leukemia virus constitutively released from the human B-lymphoblastoid cell line DG-75.
Virology 2003;308(1):83-91.
A previously undetected retrovirus has been isolated from the human Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-negative, B-lymphoblastoid DG-75 cell line, widely used for EBV gene transfection studies. The complete 8207-base genome of the DG-75 retrovirus was molecularly cloned from viral mRNA and sequenced (Accession No. AF221065). Northern blot analysis with probes specific for the putative RU-5, gag, pol, and env regions identified a full-length viral RNA and spliced env mRNA. DG-75 viral RNA was isolated from the DG-75 cell sublines UW and KAR, but not from the HAD subline. The DG-75 retrovirus was isolated with primer-binding sites that match tRNA(Thr) and tRNA(Gln2). Homology searches revealed homology to (i) xenotropic NZB-9-1 env mRNA, (ii) Moloney-MLV pol region, and (iii) a truncated Evi-2 endogenous proviral sequence gag and pol region. Viral interference and infectivity assays confirmed the xenotropic nature of the DG-75 retrovirus. The DG-75 retrovirus is the first isolate of an exogenous xenotropic MLV in which the full-length genomic sequence has been characterized."

The genetic sequence of this virus is published, and by comparison on BLAST is 96% identical to XMRV

 

[jenbooks]

So...will the real virus please stand up????...

 

[misskoji]

WPI reporting XMRV is not Defretias' virus

http://www.facebook.com/CFIDSAssn#/notes/whittemore-peterson-institute/fact8/184085913025

 

[Summer]

http://www.facebook.com/CFIDSAssn#/notes/whittemore-peterson-institute/fact8/184085913025

Thanks for that. I am glad they have spoken out. I am impressed at how on top of things they are.

It's very confusing, but what about any of this hasn't been!

 

[Kati]

So what is it that she found then??? She found something, it seems clear to me. If the CDC said it was nothing, it must have been something

 

[starryeyes]

Thank you Catch. Good catch!

Wow JerryH! So Grossberg has known since 2003 that XMRV is in patients with CFS. So, did he think that XMRV is the same as his JHK retrovirus? Why isn't he upset that Mikovits is claiming she just discovered XMRV? Can you provide the link for your post please?

Jen - lol!

If none of the former retroviruses discovered in CFS are XMRV, then we have more than one infectious human retrovirus in us.

They're either all the same infectious human retrovirus or they are different. The WPI is pretending that none of those other discoveries of infectious human retroviruses were real.

 

[acer2000]

The only way for them to definitively say that those other retroviruses weren't the same ones is to test the old samples for both and see what comes up. I don't see the WPI saying they went back and tested DeFreitas's samples or the "JHK" ones either. But perhaps they have? Would be good to know.

 

[MEKoan]

So what is it that she found then??? She found something, it seems clear to me. If the CDC said it was nothing, it must have been something

lololol

 

[Frankie Dene]

This was in the New york Times as part of an interview with Nancy Klimas adds a bit to the discussion


By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Candice Towell for The New York Times Andrea Whittemore-Goad, 31, was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome when she was 12.
Denise Grady, a science writer for The New York Times, recently explored the link between a recently discovered virus called XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome, in Is a Virus the Cause of Fatigue Syndrome? Here, Dr. Nancy G. Klimas, who serves on the board of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, responds to readers questions. Dr. Klimas is a director of the department of immunology of the University of Miami School of Medicine and director of research for clinical AIDS/H.I.V. research at the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center. See her earlier responses in Readers Ask: A Virus Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fred Friedbergs responses to behavior-related questions in Behavioral Treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

[Are There Two Viruses Linked With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Q.
Dr. Klimas: I really want to know more about what you think of the specific findings of Dr. DeFreitas. Do you think there are two retroviruses associated with Cfids? I know there needs to be more study, but do you have an educated guess as to how they interact and if they are causative or just epiphenomena?

For example, if this were solely hypocondriasis or conversion disorder, I would want to know so I could start therapy on it.
Justin Reilly
end of quote

A.
Dr. Klimas responds:

Elaine DeFreitass work and that of Dr. Michael Holmes of New Zealand both involved scanning electron micrographs of viruses. Their findings look a great deal like those that were published in the recent Science article by Dr. Lombardi and colleagues, which Ms. Grady wrote about in The Times,) that found a possible link between chronic fatigue syndrome and the XMRV retrovirus. Could they be looking at the same virus? I dont really know, because I am not a laboratory virologist. But it makes good sense to me.

I remember in the early 1990s a member of our laboratory, Dr. Roberto Patarca, found evidence of production of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase in our cell cultures, more evidence of an active retroviral infection. So the key thing now is for another reputable lab to find the same thing in chronic fatigue syndrome. Then we will see what happens next.[/PHP]

 

[starryeyes]

So far the names of infectious human retroviruses found in CFS are:

CAV - De Freitas et al. 1991
JHK - Grossberg et al. 2001
XMRV - Mikovits et al. 2009

I stand corrected, see the posts below.

Then there are numerous other studies from researchers at HEM and New Zealand, and Denmark where an infectious human retrovirus was found in CFS patients. And there was the Icelandic doctor who suspected an infectious human retrovirus in CFS in the 1950s. All of this is posted by me on p. 9 of this thread.

Thank you MissKoji who posted the link to the WPI FB page on p. 10 of this thread. They prove that CAV is not XMRV. Then that means we may have at least 2 infectious human retroviruses in us.

 

[Advocate]

So far the names of infectious human retroviruses found in CFS are:

CAV - DeFreitas et al. 1991
JHK - Grossberg et al. 2001
XMRV - Mikovits et al. 2009
.

Things have changed since 1991. On Vincent Raconiello's website, J. Rodney Brister, the Viral Genome Curator at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), discusses some of the issues related to viral classification.

Perhaps the more pressing issues in virus classification arise as the traditional, isolate, passage, and physically characterize approach to viral discovery is altered by modern molecular techniques.

In the past, viruses have been characterized by a number of criteria including host and disease. Yet, the proliferation of environmental sampling, emerging direct sequencing methodologies, and a greater appreciation of the broad host range of some viruses, creates a number of classification problems.

For example, how does one know if a novel candidate genome gathered from a sewer or a biopsy is actually a virus? And for that matter, how does one know that the sequence at hand is a full-length, fully functional viral genome? The relevance of these questions grows every day as databases are filled with an increasing number of novel genomes obtained through these methodologies.

Of course, these direct sequencing projects do have a number of advantages.

There is no need to passage the prospective viruses over host cells, so there is no laboratory adaptation to a particular cell line.

Such open ended approaches also recover multiple isolates from a single sample, allowing one to track naturally occurring genetic diversity, and it is likely that the proliferation of new techniques, combined with good old fashion bench work, will fundamentally change our view of viral evolution and adaptation.

More here: http://www.twiv.tv/2009/08/02/twiv-43-virus-classification/