Bob
Senior Member
- Messages
- 16,455
- Location
- England (south coast)
I hope I'm not being prematurely negative about it all but I am expecting it to be a negative study...
Partly to protect myself from disappointment, but also partly because it seems to be so difficult to replicate positive results reliably.
If the results are anything other than negative, then obviously, that will be very exciting, to say the least.
I wouldn't be surprised if we had another mixed bag of results... A few positive results from various samples, but not reliably reproducible... And not enough differentiation between patients and controls for it to be a 'positive' study...
But I would hope that someone like Lipkin might be interested enough to follow up any results, if they find some sequences, to try to find out what all of these novel sequences are, and where they are coming from, and to see if any of them are integrated into human DNA. My understanding is that he has access to the technology to investigate deeper and further than most other researchers. Although it might be the case that he can't do deeper research into any sequences that they might find, until he gets more funding for a further study.
So even a negative/mixed/ambiguous result for this study, might lead to further research, and a deeper understanding of MLVs, even if they end up not being ME-related.
Or it might be a completely negative study. Or it might be the case that they find some sequences and decide that they are contamination, and then locate the source of the contamination. That in itself would advance the science, esp if they are novel sequences.
I really hope that Judy Mikovits has been given all the opportunities, and equipment, and freedom, to carry out her research to her satisfaction, including looking at antibodies.
Thankfully we now have Rituximab, which at least leaves us something to pin out hopes on, whatever the outcome of the Lipkin study.
Partly to protect myself from disappointment, but also partly because it seems to be so difficult to replicate positive results reliably.
If the results are anything other than negative, then obviously, that will be very exciting, to say the least.
I wouldn't be surprised if we had another mixed bag of results... A few positive results from various samples, but not reliably reproducible... And not enough differentiation between patients and controls for it to be a 'positive' study...
But I would hope that someone like Lipkin might be interested enough to follow up any results, if they find some sequences, to try to find out what all of these novel sequences are, and where they are coming from, and to see if any of them are integrated into human DNA. My understanding is that he has access to the technology to investigate deeper and further than most other researchers. Although it might be the case that he can't do deeper research into any sequences that they might find, until he gets more funding for a further study.
So even a negative/mixed/ambiguous result for this study, might lead to further research, and a deeper understanding of MLVs, even if they end up not being ME-related.
Or it might be a completely negative study. Or it might be the case that they find some sequences and decide that they are contamination, and then locate the source of the contamination. That in itself would advance the science, esp if they are novel sequences.
I really hope that Judy Mikovits has been given all the opportunities, and equipment, and freedom, to carry out her research to her satisfaction, including looking at antibodies.
Thankfully we now have Rituximab, which at least leaves us something to pin out hopes on, whatever the outcome of the Lipkin study.