You can view the page at http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/content.php?283-Of-Mice-and-Men-The-X-MLV-s-and-XMRV
Did you mean "house mice in the US typically carry few carry XMLVs " ? Or am I just too tired to be trying to comprehend this information packed article tonight? Unbelievably great job as usual.House Mice in the US are Clean! - Kozak points out that house mice in the US typically carry few carry XMRVs with most carrying M/P ERVs. Endogenous retroviruses associated with XMLVs are typically found in eastern Europe and Asia.
Whoops..... That was a little miss there
Thanks!
Great summary Cort, thank you.
Re Transmission - I know this has been discussed before and some don't like the idea, but surely if some species of lab mouse carry retroviruses which can be transmitted a) as a whole to other species, or b) in part of a virus which then has the potential to marry up with endogenous retrovirus sequences already inside a human cell, then we really DO have to look at how we use tissue from lab mice in relation to human vaccine preparation and other pharmaceuticals esp I/V.
I don't see that there can be any doubt about this.
Well, you seemed to get a lot more out of this than I did.
I got the overall points from it. But the part about the tetherin confused me. I would read the sentence and think it is saying one thing and then I would read it again and think it is saying the opposite.
It used the term "antagonize the tetherin" Does that mean it causes a tetherin reaction or does it mean it prevents the tetherin reaction?
Tina
This term is a scientific relic of a time when scientists were expected to know Latin and Greek. Promoting a reaction makes something an agonist, while hindering it makes it an antagonist. As my spell checker reminds me, you don't see both words used this way in common speech....It used the term "antagonize the tetherin" Does that mean it causes a tetherin reaction or does it mean it prevents the tetherin reaction?...
Mizakawa recently wrote a paper that examined this problem. He noted that many vaccines are produced using cell lines from cats, mice, pigs and chickens, all of which carry ERV's. Vaccine producers used to just worry whether the cell lines they used contain live viruses...he is arguing that they should worry more about whether those cell lines contain ERV's that can produce live viruses or proteins from them.
That sounds like a real can of worms.
Wonderfully written Cort! Four paws up!