Article: Comedown at CROI: XMRV and CFS at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infectio

Article: Comedown at CROI: XMRV and CFS at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportu

You can view the page at http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/content.php?377-Comedown-at-CROI-XMRV-and-CFS-at-the-Conference-Retroviruses-Opportunistic-Infections-Boston

 

Thanks, I was just thinking about going to the video.

I did see here

Analysis of 15 nude mouse strains indicated that none contained XMRV, but some strains potentially used to passage the xenograft contained both PreXMRV-1 and PreXMRV-2.

I wonder if they know all the strains used to passage the xenograft?

Interesting idea about androgen independence. I imagine that it didn't help XMRV - I guess it depends on the efficacy of their tests - which I imagine is quite good - but that is something else to think about.

 

Something to consider. The introduction of nude mice into research laboratories about coincides with the first recorded outbreak of ME (Los Angeles, 1934).

Although the first official batch is ascribed to Bethesda, Maryland, there was earlier stock. They all seem to orginate from 9 mice brought from Lausanne, Switzerland in 1926 by a Clara Lynch. The trail then goes to Harlan Laboratories that have a site in Placentia, in the Greater Los Angeles Area, but I have no info on when they arrived there (Harlan Laboratories was founded in Indianapolis in 1931 and then quickly expanded.)

By the way, has XMRV or pre-XMRV been detected in hamsters?

 

By the way, has XMRV or pre-XMRV been detected in hamsters?

I can not find any in vivo tests.

PubMed gives three hits

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17234809

An infectious retrovirus susceptible to an IFN antiviral pathway from human prostate tumors.

Expression in hamster cells of the xenotropic and polytropic retrovirus receptor 1 allowed these cells to be infected by XMRV.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19811656

Six host range variants of the xenotropic/polytropic gammaretroviruses define determinants for entry in the XPR1 cell surface receptor.

Among the XMVs, two isolates, XMRV and AKR6, differ from other XMVs in their PMV-like restriction in hamster cells

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844050

Evolution of functional and sequence variants of the mammalian XPR1 receptor for mouse xenotropic gammaretroviruses and the human-derived retrovirus XMRV.

and the resistance of hamster and gerbil cells to XMRV indicates that XMRV has unique receptor requirements.

 

Thanks, Toos.

Note that many pet hamsters stem from laboratory hamsters that were introduced during WW II; they quickly became very popular. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4241645/Leonard-Goodwin.html .

I seem to remember that endemic cases of ME began to get noticed shortly after in the UK.

What if the lab mice infected the lab hamsters (or perhaps they were already carriers, too)?
Does pre-XMRV combine to XMRV in hamsters? Pet hamsters often have little defense against infections.
How many of us had pet hamsters at home? My family had several, when I first got mononucleosis. Three of us later got a disease that has been linked to XMRV.

 

How many of us had pet hamsters at home? My family had several, when I first got mononucleosis. Three of us later got a disease that has been linked to XMRV.

We did not have hamsters or any rodents as pets.

When I was a kid we had rabbits that were kept for food. There were big wild rats in the barn. Mice were everywhere in rural.