• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Are there any European XMRV positive studies?

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
Can anyone help me with this please?

Have there been any positive results announced for any European XMRV research studies on either ME patients or blood bank samples? (i.e. any positive results announced in Norway, Belgium, Germany etc)

Have any positive European studies been actually been published?

And what was the study that detected XMRV in nasal fluids? (was it in Germany?)
Does anyone have a link for that please?

Thanks very much for any help with this,

Bob
 

omerbasket

Senior Member
Messages
510
Hi Bob,
There have been a couple of positive studies regarding european patients (but in most of them the testing of the sample was not done in Europe).
First of all, the study that found XMRV in respiratory secretions was done in Germany, and the link for this study is: http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/6/1000.htm

Now there are currently 2-3 studies that checked the blood of ME/CFS patients from Europe, but they haven't been published yet:
1) The WPI's study found XMRV in at least 60% (the numbers I've heared more recently talked about 70%-80%, but I don't know if they are correct) of 50 patients from Britain (I think from Ashford). The blood of the patients was drawn in Britain, and the samples were checked in the US. You can see it's abstract here, in the abstract list of the 1st XMRV workshope (abstract O_13): http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=4092&d=1285483565
2) A Norwegian study, which I think used VIP Dx in the US for testing, found 50 out of 80 (62%) ME/CFS patients to be positive for XMRV: http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=15684
3) There was an article about Dr. De Meirleir finding XMRV in patients from Belgium and other European countries, via testing in RED Laboratories (which tests the samples like the WPI), but I'm not sure that these statements are correct - there might have been a mistake there and he might have meant that he tested patients that were already found to be XMRV positive before his study. Anyway, this is the link (it's a translation to English, it's in French in the original article): http://translate.google.co.il/trans...la-fatigue-chronique&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
It would be good if we could be sure that any of this stuff was in press, at least. It might make a big difference in Europe (the UK govt line seems to be that XMRV isn't in the UK).
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
Here's a collated list of links to helpful info regarding the Japanese and European studies, in case they are helpful for anyone...
Thanks to Omerbasket for providing me with them...

Japan (XMRV found in 1.7% of blood bank samples):
http://www.diagnosesupport.com/heal...ted-virus-in&catid=132:xmrv-research&Itemid=8

Germany (XMRV found in respiratory secretions):
http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/6/1000.htm

Norway:
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=15684

Belgium (Prof De Meirleir):
http://translate.google.co.il/trans...la-fatigue-chronique&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8
http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=3848&d=1284150125

Spain (small scale positive study):
http://xmrv.blogspot.com/2010/09/irsi-caixa-finds-xmrv-in-spain.html
http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=574407
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
The Belgium study - Professor De Meirleir

It seems that Professor De Meirleir was in charge of the Belgium study...

Does anyone know if he presented any results at the 1st XMRV International Conference?

I think I read somewhere that he was due to present his findings at the conference, and that he did say something about it, but I can't find the info.

Can anyone help with this? Many thanks.

Bob
 

Jemal

Senior Member
Messages
1,031
This weekend there was also an XMRV conference in the Netherlands and De Meirleir was one of the speakers. Unfortunately I can't find any reports about this conference yet...
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
This is a very brief summary of the Japanese and European research studies that I know about, based on the very limited info I can find...
I've included all the links for the sources of the information that I know about.
If anyone knows of any more sources of info on any of these, or any other European studies, then please could you let me know so I can collate the info?
Thank you.


Japan
XMRV found in 1.7% of random donor samples from the blood supply in Japan, testing for antibodies only. (Study of blood bank samples and prostate cancer patients, not ME patients.)
http://www.diagnosesupport.com/heal...ted-virus-in&catid=132:xmrv-research&Itemid=8

"Although our study had a limited sample size, the prevalence among blood donors as determined by identifying XMRV-specific antibodies was found to be 1.7%, while that among prostate cancer patients was found to be 6.3%"


Germany
XMRV found in respiratory secretions in 3.2% of healthy control samples (study not carried out on ME patients).
Respiratory samples taken from patients with respiratory tract infection and healthy persons.
http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/6/1000.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/6/1000-T.htm

"We detected XMRV in respiratory secretions of immunocompetent patients with and without RTI at a frequency of 3.2%, which is in good concordance with the recently reported prevalence in the general population of up to 4% [referring to the 3.7% in the Science paper]"

"Our findings indicate that XMRV or virus-infected cells might be carried in and transmitted by the respiratory tract."

"XMRV-specific sequences were detected in 2%3% of samples from 168 immunocompetent carriers and 10% of samples from 161 immunocompromised patients"


Norway
62% of patients tested positive for XMRV at the Lillestrom Health Clinic, using the VIPdx lab.
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=15684

The Lillestrom Health Clinic tested 80 patients and 50 were tested positive by either culture or serology test a total of 62%. The tests were done in cooperation with VIPdx labs in the USA.

More information about these results will be given on the 28th of November 2010 in Oslo at the XMRV/MLV seminar with Dr. Judy Mikovits...
See this link for more details of the November Oslo XMRV seminar:
http://esme-eu.com/home/xmrv-mlv-se...f-november-2010-oslo-norway-article423-6.html

In November 2010, the Lillestrom Health Clinic will launch a large international research project on Human Gammaretrovirus and ME.


Belgium
Study led by Professor De Meirleir.
Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Belgian company biotech RED Laboratories "are able to identify a new retrovirus in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome."
http://translate.google.co.il/trans...la-fatigue-chronique&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8
http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=3848&d=1284150125
http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?7124-Meirleir-confirms-XMRV-findings-in-Europe
http://www.nieuws.be/nieuws/VUB-ond...chronisch_vermoeidheidssyndroom_6a743703.aspx
http://regist2.virology-education.com/abstractbook/2010_8.pdf

VUB researchers find new virus in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
Researchers at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and the Belgian biotech company Red Laboratories have succeeded in distinguishing a new retrovirus in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS / ME patients). Thus they confirm recent U.S. findings on this issue. VUB-Press Service reports that Tuesday.

U.S. researchers at the University of Nevada in October 2009 found that the majority of CFS / ME patients are carriers of a new retrovirus XMRV. These findings have also been confirmed by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). New to the study led by Professor De Meirleir VUB is that the virus was found in CFS / ME patients from across Europe. Moreover, the immunological signature, a kind of footprint in the immune system, is similar to that of symptomatic HIV patients. "It seems that for the roughly 17 million CFS / ME patients world-wide end to a long ordeal surrounding the recognition of their illness. The development of targeted therapies is already underway, both in Belgium and abroad" says De Meirleir.


Spain
Pilot study by J Blanco et al:
http://regist2.virology-education.com/abstractbook/2010_8.pdf
http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/sh...-Spanish-XMRV-studies&highlight=spanish+study
Detection of XMRV sequences in EBV-transformed B cell lines
"Envelope amplification yielded positive bands in 4 out of 21 individuals tested, 3 CFS affected individuals and 1 healthy donor.However, gag amplification yielded only 3 positive samples (1 CFS affected individual, 1 healthy donor and one HIV+ patient).In contrast, Real-time PCR of Pol fragment detected 7 positives samples in 14 individuals tested (4 SFC , 2 donors and 1 HIV+ individuals)."

Conclusions: Despite the discrepancies observed in the different PCR approaches using gag, pol or env sequences, our data suggest that EBV transformed B cell lines harbor XMRV specific sequences, and therefore this cell type may represent a reservoir for XMRV contributing to its potential pathogenesis.


Spain (progress of study unknown to me)
Hospital Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona:
http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=574407
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=15703

[It's uncertain that the facts have been reported correctly in this case]
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Many thanks for all the up to date information Bob. So good to see how things progress (overseas never here).