Mikovits: Direct evidence of Human gamma retrovirus infection in M.E. shown clearly b

[RustyJ]

Direct evidence of Human gamma retrovirus infection in M.E. shown clearly by electron microscopy
by The Academy of Nutritional Medicine (AONM) on Tuesday, October 11, 2011:



Dr. Judy Mikovits MD

Virological and immune evidence of Human gamma retrovirus infection in M.E.

On the second anniversary of the publication Dr Judy A Mikovits presented a paper regarding evidence supporting infection of ME patients with Xenotropic MLV-related viruses at the Fibromylagia ME conference in Tullamore, Ireland. Dr Mikovits explained the recent finding that DNA samples described in the 2009 Lombardi et al. publication were found to be contaminated with an XMRV virus clone named VP62. The reporting of incorrect viral sequences explains why the experiments designed to replicate the PCR data described in the Lombardi et al. paper have given negative results in many laboratories.

Dr. Mikovits described the detection of gammaretrovirus protein directly from un-manipulated plasma, direct isolation of gamma retroviruses from blood cells of ME/CFS patients shown clearly by electron microscopy, cell-associated and cell-free transmission of virus to uninfected primary cells and cell lines, antibodies against an envelope protein derived from a murine leukemia virus in serum of CFS/ME patients. In the 2009 work, serum from more patients than controls exhibited antibodies against the viral envelope protein. These findings are not affected by the errors in Figure 1 and in the virus genome sequencing and in fact explain discrepancies in Figure 1 and the protein/antibody data shown in the paper. Individuals whose immune systems have made antibodies to a gammaretrovirus envelope protein have been exposed at some time to similar polypeptides. The identity of the proteins that elicited in the antibodies is not presently known; all that is known is that they are highly similar to proteins known to be present in gammaretroviruses.

Dr Mikovits described how XMRV has suffered from an issue of nomenclature. Dr Mikovits and colleagues used XMRV to mean viruses with sequences similar to the virus reported by Urisman et al. in 2006 to be present in prostate cancer tissues. However, XMRV has come to mean only the sequence of the virus molecularly cloned (but not isolated) in 2006 and the nearly identical viruses that have been found in some cell culture lines. In order to clarify nomencaltrue for future research on gammaretroviruses, Dr Mikovits proposes referring to gammaretroviruses detected in humans as HGRVs, human gammaretroviruses.

Although it is known that ...
a variety of gammaretroviruses can infect human cells in culture, further work is needed to determine whether one or more gammaretroviruses infect humans and whether they are associated with neuroimmune diseases including ME and Fibromylagia. Dr Mikovits research is performing serological studies that will be able to determine the proportion of the patient and healthy populations that have been exposed to gammaretroviral proteins and have mounted an immune response, even if the gammaretroviral proteins are not identical to those in the XMRV sequence, VP62. Judgments on the value of future research on gammaretroviruses in neuroimmune diseases CFS/ME and Fibromylagia must await further research utilizing uniformly collected samples from carefully chosen patients and controls.

http://niceguidelines.blogspot.com/2011/10/direct-evidence-of-human-gamma.html?forumid=331851

 

[Enid]

She's a marvel ! - thanks for this Rusty.

 

[Firestormm]

Well I suppose we would all like to see Mikovits publish a paper on that at some point. I am intrigued where she is carrying out these 'serology studies' though Rusty, and if indeed there is any research she is conducting at the moment.

I did hear/read that she had found or was seeking employment in Canada. Have you heard anything? And then there is the latest statement from her about taking that NIH grant with her as is her right apparently, as well as asking people to give her their samples and not leave them with the WPI or something? Sounds like a 'call to arms' to me but maybe I am reading all this wrong...

Someone needs to get a grip with it all that's for sure.

 

[Deatheye]

Someone wrote that it's not sure if the grant is to mikovits or the wpi. Sadly INeither remember wjere i've read that.
But devinitly nice to see this. Ireally hope she gets to publish such stuff soon. She sad for a long time that she is talking about a family and not only vp62. It always confused me how it came from xmrv as a family to xmrv as vp62...

 

[Bob]

I'm pleased to see Judy doing more with the serological research, because the anti-body results could potentially be used as a biomarker for ME even if HGRV's ultimately prove not to be involved.

 

[currer]

TThe research on HGRVs is at an early stage. Only further research can clarify these findings.
This is why it is so wrong to call for "retraction" and to denigrate this work.

 

[redo]

Direct evidence of Human gamma retrovirus infection in M.E. shown clearly by electron microscopy

If this is true, than it's great news. Here's what HIV looks like in an electron microscope:

Doing electron microscopy is really difficult, and it's in many ways not an exact science (often a pathogen can present itself in many "shapes and sizes"), but if this will end up with replication studies somewhere down the line, than I hope we wont get a new situation with ad hominems against authors with negative studies. It will lead to no good, and I think the community (or rather small fractions of the community) has something to learn from the second paragraph here. It might very well be that the poster (ecoclimber) used too strong words to describe the climate amongst the scientists, but I think there are some very valid points none the less.

 

[Enid]

We need everyone to follow all the avenues - in discovery and understanding of ME - hat's off to them all.

(Not very nice the HIV under a microscope redo - but on the way to understanding now whatever these so and so's look like).

 

[Bob]

The electron micrograph of XMRV is not new... It was published in the original Science paper...

Here's a photo:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=xm...&w=260&h=377&ei=IsOVTuiAC5Kp8QPumPH5Bg&zoom=1

 

[Enid]

No doubts personally Bob - it's a retroviral (whatever the eventual name in the complexities of virology) which reduces immune function and allows expression of a wide range of latent viruses.

(That I think is the Mikovits way and with which I much agree - some viral pathogen sets in motion to allow the rest - what is it that strikes the immune system so profoundly in the first place - retroviruses being found and treated with success it seems)

 

[Daffodil]

mikovits in canada???? woah. never heard that