can someone tell us what it means to have an antibody test available???
Culture method is the gold standard to prove a pathogen exists, as the virus is actually re-grown and 'infected' from your own sample in cells, in a petri dish.
It's expensive, and would take at least 5 days for each test.
A positive Antibody test, shows not the Pathogen (XMRV) but an immune response to it. Meaning............
A positive Antibody test is impossible for XMRV to be contamination through the human body responding to a virus (XMRV) rather than a contaminant (Not a virus).
NB: + XMRV Culture
at WPI/VIPdx is also impossible for WPI XMRV culture method to be contamination, as WPI has evidence of a new human retrovirus, XMRV, 'budding' under the microscope. Thus contamination is impossible via WPI method as their test was checked and then confirmed not to be contamination by NCI, Cleaveland Clinic and even the CDC!
In Layman's terms, XMRV Antibody+ result doesn't need anyone to verify it, as the Culture did. If your body have Antibodies to XMRV, then it does - end of story.
Lastly, Antibody method is cheap, quick and normally done for other diseases - such as HIV.
Personally I would get Culture & Antibody test done (if not tested postive yet), because we don't know yet (from the Science) if one can have XMRV and no Antibodies. (Do I have them? I don't know). It would thus be foolhardy to just get an Antibody test, get it back negative - and conclude one does not have XMRV infection. This is very important to remember!
Theoretically, the sickest patients would have no Antibodies to XMRV, therefore show no immune response to it, and therefore have ZERO defence against it.
We shall see, when patients who are positive culture, report back if they are negative antibody, and also report if they are house bound/bed bound.