Special XMRV Issue of "Advances in Virology"

[ixchelkali]

The journal "Advances in Virology has published a special issue with 13 XMRV studies. The guest editors for this issue are Myra McClure, Arifa S. Khan, Yoshinao Kubo, and Paul Jolicoeur.

Here's a link to the journal: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/av/2011/si.xmlv/

And here's a link to the editorial introducing the issue: http://downloads.mts.hindawi.com/MTS-Files/AV/papers/XMLV/787394.v1.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=0CX53QQSTHRYZZQRKA02&Expires=1315297827&Signature=adimeUT3k6gM2zAsBWOadtoMZPg%3D

How shall I put this? The papers are not cause for celebration. Oh, and I should mention that Advances in Virology is an open-access journal. It says it's peer-reviewed.

 

[ixchelkali]

I guess when Myra McClure said she was never going to do research on CFS again, that didn't mean she was going to stop working on XMRV in prostate cancer or in the UK blood donor population. I guess she figures that won't trigger mean e-mails that she finds threatening.

 

[Jemal]

Thanks for posting ixchelkali.

The papers were posted in advance on their website the last couple of months and most were also shared on this forum. So this XMRV issue doesn't bring anything new to the table. It seems we really need the BWG, Lipkin or another group to break the stalemate.

 

[eric_s]

I think most of these papers are not negatvie, so it's not that bad. But i didn't re-read them now. We should hear from the BWG in a bit more than 2 weeks the latest, so yes, probably we just have to wait until then.

 

[Ecoclimber]

It is in a way a collection of past research but it is also a summation or critique of those research papers for the purpose as described below:

"The recent discovery of a xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related retrovirus
(designated as XMRV) in prostrate cancer tissues and later in chronic fatigue
syndrome patients created excitement related to possible association of a virus
with these human diseases. However, the failure to reproduce such results in
other laboratories raised concerns and much debate among scientists, patient
populations and clinicians over the original findings. This Special Issue is a
collection of recent research reports, which address this controversy and also
includes several expert reviews on various aspects of murine retroviruses, such
as virus biology, replication, phylogeny, and pathogenesis, as well as XMRV in
prostrate cancer."

If the servers are busy they can also be found at:
http://cfs-facts.blogspot.com/2011/09/advances-in-virology-is-publishing.html

What is interesting is that Arifa S. Khan of Laboratory of Retroviruses, Division of Viral Products, Center for Biologics Research and Review, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, Maryland is attached to the editorial.

I'm surprised that McClure was solicited for a response. Not surprised by her analysis. I guess that the UK had to be represented by someone.

What surprises me is that Paul Jolicoeur of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Qc,Canada is included as well. Paul Jolicoeur is a very strong supporter for finding a cause and a cure for ME and is extremely sympathetic toward the ME/CFS community. He believes ME/CFS etiology is pathogenic. So it surprises me to some extent that his name is included. Maybe Canada had to be included. Therefore the names attached to this review.

The bottom line is that the jury is still out until the report from Lipkin's BWG Phase IIIB trials are completed and Lombardia et al. will be given every opportunity to substantiate their findings. There is still can be some surprises that can come out of this group including methodological aspects of detection within patients.

Peace