Nature: Spoonful of Medicine: There's no tiring of controversy in the XMRV-CFS link

Well, Ila Singh doesn't seem to be giving up on her XMRV prostate cancer research just yet:

"We are currently investigating possible mechanisms of oncogenesis by XMRV in cultured cells, in human tumors and in a mouse model."

Her webpage suggests that she is very convinced by her own research:

"XMRV proteins are expressed primarily in malignant epithelial cells, suggesting that retroviral infection may be directly linked to tumorigenesis. We have shown that XMRV-infection is associated with prostate cancer, especially higher-grade cancers."

Of course, she might have changed her mind about it all now, and not yet updated her website.

http://www4.path.utah.edu/labs/singh/research.php

Webpage says:

Last modified: July 15 2010 14:35:57 Contact the Lab 2011 by Pathology. All rights reserved.

Two disparate dates? It's been hard to get a straight answer, LOL!!

For some reason the last modified date turned into a skype number. It should read Last modified: July 15, 2010. So where does the 2011 date come from?

If I am missing something let me know.

I am afraid her webpage won't give us a definite answer. These things often don't get updated (the Cleveland Clinic hasn't updated their XMRV pages either).
We need to hear from her.

There's more people I would like to hear from. Lo and Alter for example, what's their take on this? Do they still stand behind their research or not? Are they running more tests? I haven't seen them openly distance themselves from their research, so I am guessing they are still standing behind it, but that's just guesswork.

Maybe they dont want us to know something?

currer said:

Maybe they dont want us to know something?

Click to expand...

It could also be Singh doesn't want to be drawn into the public controverse for now or wants to do more research, before moving out into the open again. Apparently they didn't get permission to post her presentation, which makes it her decision I guess (or at least the decision of people affiliated with her).

Maybe she is busy? Facepalm!! Why didn't I think of that?

ETA Could it also be she is working on this and her research/results are embargoed. Maybe she doesn't want to post her results because of (some) patient harassment or waiting until the Lipkin study is published to defer any criticism towards her.

I guess we just don't know.

I have not heard from my BIL who may have gone to the conference As soon as I find out, I will report back. It's been a long week for me and am not well enough to pursue things like I would like to. Nature of the beast.

Please see my edit about the last modified date in my post above.

Update on Ila Singh, from someone at the conference. She is in the process of doing studies, where she is still pursuing an infectious component to prostate cancer.

That's all the info. I could get. I even tried cookies.

Hopefully, we will hear something soon.

ETA Dr. Singh has moved to Ithaca New York and is now working at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

Very dumb question:
were the prostate samples post mortem, biopsy samples, or excised glands from surgical procedures?
I ask because that may have a profound effect on how the virus may "respond" to the situation...(and yes they can "respond" as in, reactions to levels of stress/inflammation products triggering reactions, etc)
think about it

auto-immune...inflammatory responses...etc

just a thought from "The Twilight Zone"!

It's frustratng but we won't know until her study or studies are completed.

There are no dumb questions. :>)

Thanks Barb for the extra information about Dr Singh

Hi Silverblade,

The prostate samples came from post mortem prostate tumor tissue - for the cancer samples, and transurethral prostate resections for benign prostate hyperplasia, in the case of the controls.

XMRV protein expression was seen in the malignant epithelial cells, with a correlation between XMRV positivity and tumor grade. So as the XMRV was already in tumor cells in the cancer samples these samples were late in the disease process, long after any inflammatory process that could have helped to trigger the cancer.

The benign hyperplasia samples - the paper does not say whether inflammation is usually present in this process. It is true that there has been speculation that prostate cancer may be associated with infection and previous STDs.

It looks as if Singh is still researching XMRV and prostate cancer.

Currer
thank you for that!