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DeFreitas 1991 Retrovirus/CFS Study

bertiedog

Senior Member
Messages
1,738
Location
South East England, UK
Yes the patent and Defreitas findings of the retrovirus in the mitochondria is extremely interesting.

I had a test done over here in the UK, called a translocator test, it's to do with the ADP/ATP transport across the mito membrane from the cytoplasm of the cell if I remember correctly.

Well I had a trace of glutathione and sulphate conjugate there but also a trace of viral RNA!

I also had very low levels of mitochondria, approx 60% of normal numbers - no wonder I'm knackered! So maybe the virus destroys th mitos?

As for the ciquatoxin info that is fascinating, hadn't realised it is inked to mitochondria, wow this is all fitting in, thanks for that Kelly.

Hi Daisymay

Just to let you and others know I also had this Translactor Test done on my mitochondria to see what was blocking them. This was done in 2005 and I was one of the first to have this done. It came back that there was a partial blockage which was classified as high DNA/RNA probably viral.

The interesting thing is that I have improved then since taking daily replacement steroid along with thyroid medication. My energy and functioning is much improved but I still get frequent infections which make me very ill and my energy still runs out when doing physical stuff but I can go for hours with mental stuff as long as I am sitting down. I have been able to take on the running of 2 voluntary sector charity committees this year something I could never have done since crashing in 2000 though I first got a flu in 1979 and neurological problems followed after.

I should also mention I had a blood transfusion in 1975 following childbirth when I lost a large amount of blood which is a likely reason as to why I needed steroids. Within 10 weeks of the birth I had 2 weeks of mumps and within a year I noticed a change in my mental state tending to have periods of severe anxiety which carried on until I got on the steroids in 02. Somehow I had changed.

Tomorrow I am hoping to have the blood drawn for a retest to see if my improvement is showing up in the Translactor Study. I will be really interested to see if there is still viral DNA/RNA showing. I have persistantly also be shown to have high heavy metals which have shown up in my rbc especially nickel so want to see if this is also affecting the mito.

I take lots of daily supplements for methylation, antioxidants etc and have been doing this for over 3 years and I also take special EPA capsules as recommended by Professor Puri. This is the first year that my sleep has massively improved for more than 20 years but the main reason is the balancing of my cortisol and also the addition of fludrocortisone meaning I don't usually have to get up at night for the loo so can sleep often for 7 hours uninterrupted.

Pam
 

Andrew

Senior Member
Messages
2,513
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Does anyone know what happened to Elaine DeFreitas. The last thing I remember from Osler's Web is she was suffering from extreme unexplained body pain that wasn't getting better and forced her to stay home.
 
Messages
79
From Osler's Web

In Osler's Web, DeFreitas seemed very aware that she had found an unknown retrovirus:

p. 524: "DeFreitas spoke next. . . . 'Clearly this virus is not HTLV-two. We now have additional data that verifies that point.'"

p. 525: "Then DeFreitas moved on to the most interesting aspect of her work: the virus's appearance. 'We've look at four of these five cell lines. We can see particles by electron microscope, but not extracellular virus,' she said. 'We are not looking for a C-type retrovirus.' The significance of DeFreitas's comment most likely was appreciated by most present: every known human retrovirus was a C-type."
 

Daisymay

Senior Member
Messages
754
Well I think all you can say from the test is that there was viral RNA there that obviously shouldn't have been there, you would assume it is from viruses infecting the mitos though I guess that would have to be proven. Also have to prove it was XMRV.

Again is this causing the destruction of the mitos? Well my doc never said that, merely said that the viral RNA definitely shouldn't be there and it was significant, you know what docs are like always very cagey, but I reckon it would be a reasonable theory that IF there was an active virus in the mitos that it would be causing damage to or destroying the mitos, though my doc also said that the low levels of mitos I had in this test were unusual so perhaps that is down to something else, I have high levels of oxidativesstress which from genetic testing is partly genetic.

Don't know how the attack by the immune system on the mitos in the immune system cells would work!? gees this is all so complex.

Whatever it must be that IF we have XMRV in the mitos then it must scupper the mitochondial functioning big time. Time will tell.

But I guess we will have to wait and see what the WPI come up with, I assume they know of DeFreitas's patent? They must know about her findings?
 

mezombie

Senior Member
Messages
324
Location
East Coast city, USA
Cheney, Peterson, Defreitas - history of the search for a retroviral link to CFS

Posted today on Co-Cure by DWF CFIDS:

--------------------------------------------------

(Dr. Paul Cheney asked me to post the following article written by him.)

A retrovirus XMRV is linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Paul R. Cheney MD, PhD
The Cheney Clinic, Asheville, NC
October 2009
www.cheneyresearch.com
www.cheneyclinic.com

Recently published in Science (2009) out of the Whittemore-Peterson
Institute in Reno, NV along with The Cleveland Clinic and the National
Cancer Institute (NIH) is the first convincing association of an
isolated retrovirus with CFS. The gammaretrovirus XMRV was only recently
discovered in 2007 at the Cleveland Clinic[ii] and cultured out of
prostate cancer tissue from prostate cancer victims who had a rare
mutation in the anti-viral RNase-L pathway. CFS patients also have
unusual alterations in the same anti-viral pathway (1997)[iii] though
different in its detail and far less rare.

Dan Peterson MD, a long time resident of Incline Village, NV (Lake
Tahoe) and I worked for over eight years (1984-1992) to link CFS to a
retrovirus. Dan first sent five CFS patient samples to Specialty Labs in
1985 to test for HTLV-1 and 4 of 5 were positive. We did this due to
incredible disturbances on flow cytometry of peripheral mononuclear
cells producing elevated CD4/CD8 ratios due to CD8 depletion as well as
scatter patterns (debris patterns) that the laboratory flow cytometrist
said she had only seen in HIV infections.

A radiologist at UC San Diego, on review, said our MRI brain scans done
on CFS cases showing UBO's (1988)[iv], looked exactly likes AIDS cases.
Repeat testing was negative for HTLV-1 and Dr. James Peters of Specialty
Labs suggested these CFS patients might have a cross reacting and novel
retrovirus that looks like HTLV-1.

In 1986, I called the NCI and Robert Gallo MD, head of the foremost
retrovirology laboratory in the world at the time, accepted Lake Tahoe
samples for a year resulting in the association of an HHV-6A strain with
Lake Tahoe CFS cases (1992)[v], only previously linked to HIV infection.

While practicing in Charlotte, NC and based on continued evidence of
unusual immune disturbances by flow cytometry including CD4 depletion
(ICL) in 15% of CFS patients which was investigated in my clinic and
dismissed by the CDC in 1991 and continued high RNase-L activity
(1994)[vi], I contacted Elaine DeFreitas PhD at the Wistar Institute in
Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania who ultimately found
HTLV-II-like genes associated with CFS (1991)[vii]. Her work was
unfortunately assaulted by the CDC that claimed either an endogenous RV
sequence that lighted up in cases and controls using her primers (per
Dr. J.W. Gow) or null responses to cases and controls (per CDC scientist).

Elaine argued that these two scientists with diametrically opposing
results manipulated the magnesium concentration which affects the primer
stringency and got whatever result they wanted, to make their opposite
claims. Her proposal to fly CDC scientists to Philadelphia to run the
assays side by side with the her in her lab to see if these results
could be replicated was dismissed by the CDC based on lack of funds to
buy plane tickets from Atlanta to Philadelphia. Dr. Gow would later
publish his opinion (1992)[viii]. Left unfunded by senior administrators
at the NIH and the CDC, the search for a retroviral link in CFS
dissipated and was lost until Judy Mikovits PhD, operating out of the
independent Whittemore-Peterson Institute, revived the long search. I
congratulate her and the Whittemore-Peterson Institute.

The finding of antibody or active virus in 95% of CFS and 4% of controls
is a result that argues for causality, in my opinion, especially with
the associated RNase-L[ix] corruption and NK functional impairment[x]
that might predict such an infection. This novel retrovirus could easily
shift the redox state just like HIV as has been published in (2001)[xi]
and (1995)[xii] and induce all manner of associated pathogens as seen in
CFS[xiii],[xiv],[xv],[xvi],[xvii]. A redox shift could ultimately
corrupt the gut ecology and create P450 decoupling based on NADPH
depletion observed in CFS and lead to environmental illness as well.

Time will tell but I think Dr. Mikovits is right to suspect causality. I
also think this virus is infectious with at least ten million Americans
infected who appear healthy and perhaps another 4 million Americans or
more with CFS as recently estimated by the CDC (2007)[xviii]. However,
disease expression may be more limited causing the illusion that it is
not infectious. Furthermore, there may be other diseases that are
similar and dissimilar to CFS that are associated with if not caused by
XMRV.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vincent C. Lombardi,1* Francis W. Ruscetti,2* Jaydip Das Gupta,3 Max
A. Pfost,1 Kathryn S. Hagen,1 Daniel L. Peterson,1 Sandra K. Ruscetti,4
Rachel K. Bagni,5 Cari Petrow-Sadowski,6 Bert Gold,2 Michael Dean,2
Robert H. Silverman,3 Judy A. Mikovits1 Detection of an Infectious
Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome Science epub ahead of publication - 8 October 2009, pp 4-10,
science.1179052, www.sciencexpress.org
[ii] Dong B, Kim S, Hong S, Das Gupta J, Malathi K, Klein EA, Ganem D,
Derisi JL, Chow SA, Silverman RH An infectious retrovirus susceptible
to an IFN antiviral pathway from Human prostate tumors (2007) Proc Natl
Acad Sci USA 104:16551660.
[iii] Suhadolnick RJ, Peterson DL, O'Brien K, Cheney PR, Herst CVT,
Reichenbach NL, Kon N, Horvath SE, Iacono KT, Adelson ME, De Meirleir K,
De Becker P, Charubala R and Pfleiderer W "Biochemical Evidence for a
Novel Low Molecular Weight 2-5A-Dependent RNase L in Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome" Journal of Inteferon and Cytokine Research 17:377-385 (1997)
[iv] Buchwald D, Biddle R, Josesz FA, Kikinis R, Cheney PR, Peterson D,
Komaroff AL, Central Nervous System Abnormalities on Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) in an Outbreak of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS),
Presented at the American Federation for Clinical Research Annual
Meeting, San Diego, CA 1988
[v] Buchwald,D., Cheney, PR., Peterson,DL., Henry,B., Wormsley,SB.,
Geiger,A., Ablashi,DV., Salahuddin,Z., Saxinger,C., Biddle,R.,
Kikinis,R., Jolesz,FA., Folks,T., Balachandran,N., Peter,JB.,
Gallo,RC.,and Komaroff,AL., A Chronic Illness Characterized by Fatigue,
Neurologic and Immunologic Disorders, and Active Human Herpesvirus-6
Infection, Annals of Internal Medicine, Jan. 15, 1992:116(2), pp.103-113.
[vi] Suhadolnik, RJ., Reichenbach,NL., Hitzges,P., Adelson,ME.,
Peterson,DL., Cheney, PR., Salvato,P., Thompson,C., Loveless,M.,
Muller,WG., Schroder,HC., Strayer,DR., and Carter,WA., "Changes in the
2-5A Synthetase/RNase L Antiviral Pathway in a Controlled Clinical Trial
with Poly(1)-Poly(C12U) in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", In Vivo,
8:599-604, (1994).

[vii] Buchwald,D., Cheney, PR., Peterson,DL., Henry,B., Wormsley,SB.,
Geiger,A., Ablashi,DV., Salahuddin,Z., Saxinger,C., Biddle,R.,
Kikinis,R., Jolesz,FA., Folks,T., Balachandran,N., Peter,JB.,
Gallo,RC.,and Komaroff,AL., A Chronic Illness Characterized by Fatigue,
Neurologic and Immunologic Disorders, and Active Human Herpesvirus-6
Infection, Annals of Internal Medicine, Jan. 15, 1992:116(2), pp.103-113.
[viii] J W Gow, K Simpson, A Schliephake, W M Behan, L J Morrison, H
Cavanagh, A Rethwilm, P O Behan Search for retrovirus in the chronic
fatigue syndrome Journal of Clinical Pathology 1992;45:1058-1061
[ix] Suhadolnick RJ, Peterson DL, O'Brien K, Cheney PR, Herst CVT,
Reichenbach NL, Kon N, Horvath SE, Iacono KT, Adelson ME, De Meirleir K,
De Becker P, Charubala R and Pfleiderer W "Biochemical Evidence for a
Novel Low Molecular Weight 2-5A-Dependent RNase L in Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome" Journal of Inteferon and Cytokine Research 17:377-385 (1997)
[x] Caligiuri M, Murry C, Buchwald D, Levine H, Cheney PR, Peterson DL,
Komaroff AL, and Ritz R, Phenotypic and Functional Deficiency of
Natural Killer Cells in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. J
Immunology 1987; 139: 3306-
[xi] Ricard MJ, Favier A et al HIV-1 Tat protein impairs
selenoglutathione peroxidase expression by a mechanism independent of
cellular selemium uptake: consequences on cellular resistance to UV
radiation. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2001 Feb 15: 386(2):213-20
[xii] Westendorp MO, Lehmann V et al German Cancer Research Center,
Heidelberg) HIV-1 Tat gene activates NF-kB via TNF-a and associated
with reduced MnSOD and GSH/GSSG ratio EMBO J. 1995 Feb 1: 14(3):546-54
[xiii] Buchwald,D., Cheney, PR., Peterson,DL., Henry,B., Wormsley,SB.,
Geiger,A., Ablashi,DV., Salahuddin,Z., Saxinger,C., Biddle,R.,
Kikinis,R., Jolesz,FA., Folks,T., Balachandran,N., Peter,JB.,
Gallo,RC.,and Komaroff,AL., A Chronic Illness Characterized by Fatigue,
Neurologic and Immunologic Disorders, and Active Human Herpesvirus-6
Infection, Annals of Internal Medicine, Jan. 15, 1992:116(2), pp.103-113.
[xiv] Straus,SE., Tosato,G., Armstrong,G., Lawley,T., Preble,OT.,
Henle,W., Davey,R., Pearson,G.,
Epstein,J., Brus,I. and Blaese,RM., Persisting Illness and Fatigue in
Adults with Evidence of Epstein-Barr
Virus Infection, Ann. Intern. Med.,102:7-16,1985.
[xv] W. John Martin, Li Cheng Zeng, Khalid Ahmed, Maju Roy,
"Cytomegalovirus - Related Sequence in a Atypical Cytopathic Virus
Repeatedly Isolated From a Patient with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome",
American Journal of Pathology, pgs. 440-451, Volume 145:(2), August,1994.
[xvi] Gow,JW., Behan,WMH., Clements,GB., Woodall,C., Riding,M.,
Behan,PO., Enteroviral RNA Sequences Detected by Polymerase Chain
Reaction in Muscle of Patients with Postviral Fatigue Syndrome,Br. Med.
J.,302:692-96,1991.
[xvii] Multiple co-infections (Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, human herpes
virus-6) in blood of chronic fatigue syndrome patients: association with
signs and symptoms. G. L. Nicolson et al., Acta Pathol. Microbiol.
Immunol. Scand.(APMIS) 2003; 111: 557-566
[xviii] Reeves WC, Jones JJ, Maloney E, et al (CDC). New study on the
prevalence of CFS in metro, urban and rural Georgia populations.
Population Health Metrics. 2007; 5(5).
 

jenbooks

Guest
Messages
1,270
Lack of funds to fly from Atlanta to Philadlephia. FRICKEN A. Add insult to injury. I'm so mad I'm going to scream. I don't know why but of everything I've heard this takes the cake.
 

jackie

Senior Member
Messages
591
Summer.....thanks so much for the link to Dr. David Bell and his Newsletter! Other than statements from Dr. Cheney, his response to XMRV is the only other "weighing in" from major players that I've read, so far.

His thoughts on the subject are easy to understand, thoughtful and also reassuring. He jokes that the news of the Retrovirus is derailing him from his long anticipated retirement!

I didn't know much about him, although in my never-ending Internet search for ME/CFS answers I've run across his name.

Until now I only "stopped" long enough to read and print out his recommendation for a simple in-office test for Orthostatic Intolerance.

I've yet to get a Dr. to perform this test with me (I've just been told, yes, I have OI and given a script for Atenolol).

Interestingly enough, yesterday my niece who has ME/CFS had her first appointment with a new Dr. and after she complained of OI symptoms he immediately performed this same office test!

Anyway, I read Dr. Bells newsletter and then went cruising around his website (mostly lured by the images of his wonderful Photography).

Then I noticed his book "The Faces of CFS" and the offer of a free download of the e-book.

I started reading, but had to stop. Tears of joy and relief to read the words of a DOCTOR that so perfectly understood ME/CFS and US! In relation to the many questions about XMRV, I think his study/research is extremely relevant as so many of his original patients were very young children!

I still haven't finished reading as I had to come here and encourage all who haven't seen this yet to go to his website and READ!

I'm going to BUY (big deal for me!) a copy and drag it with me to all three of my doctors. He also has a new book on cellular-hypoxia available now.

I may just be behind the times, and most everyone else knows about this Doctor and his work...but oh, to live in Lyndonville!

By the way, Dr. Bell dedicated his "Faces..." book to Dr. Elaine DeFreitas.

Again, Thanks! jackie
 

Summer

Senior Member
Messages
175
Summer.....thanks so much for the link to Dr. David Bell and his Newsletter!

By the way, Dr. Bell dedicated his "Faces..." book to Dr. Elaine DeFreitas.

Again, Thanks! jackie

I had just removed my post from this section, about Dr. Bell's newsletter, because I felt it should be on a thread to itself in the XMRV/XAND section. It is very good and easy to read, on XMRV.

But, here is the link to this month's newsletter, which is all about XMRV. (Yes, Dr. Bell has written a lot of good and understandable books about CFIDS).

Dr. Bells October Newletter about XMRV:
http://www.davidsbell.com/LynNewsV6N2.htm

Here is the link to Dr. Bell's website:
http://www.davidsbell.com/
 
Messages
49
Complete DeFreitas patent application available online

The Elaine Defreitas complete patent application is available online (.pdf document, 91 pages) at


http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0546126.pdf


It's not clear to me whether this patent was ever granted; the "publication date" seems to refer only to publishing the application. I did a search at the World Intellectual property organization (www.wipo.int) and found the Defreitas application listed there:


http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/fetch....&SEARCH_IA=US1991006238&QUERY=(WO/WO9205760)+


If this long link doesn't work, just go to

http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en

and click on "patent search" and type in WO9205760 (the second character is a capital "O", not a "zero") next to "publication number", then click on the title that comes up. You'll find documentation under various tab headings. One interesting point is that under "national phase", it says that the patent (or perhaps just the patent application) was withdrawn in 1997. This may only refer to the US patent office (a check of that site shows no patents granted under this subject).


Even if a patent was never granted, the 91-page application documentation is a treasure trove of valuable information. I, too, wonder what happened to Elaine Defreitas and hope she'll be vindicated by the WPI's further research! I hated the way the CDC trashed her work. If I recall, in Osler's Web, Hillary Johnson stated that the CDC at one point seemed to confirm her work (and briefly became alarmed at the ramifications of a new, communicable retrovirus), but later only published their negative findings. (I don't remember for sure, but I think Walter Gunn was the main source of information on the CDC antics). Does anyone know what became of him? I hope he had a happy retirement. Anyway, I have no hopes that the CDC will even properly try to replicate the WPI findings, at least not with Reeves in charge; he'll never admit he's been on the wrong track.
 
C

cold_taste_of_tears

Guest
I see the link I posted has been deleted by the website?

http://www.cfs-new.org/joan.htm

I didn't screen grab it, but I did save the letters.

See attachment.
 

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dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
Weird question...

...but I haven't been able to find this out via Google:

Is Dr. DeFreitas alive, and if so, has she commented on the XMRV findings?
 

Summer

Senior Member
Messages
175
...but I haven't been able to find this out via Google:

Is Dr. DeFreitas alive, and if so, has she commented on the XMRV findings?

To my knowledge she is alive, but she was in a very bad car accident and had to live with her Mother a long time. I do not know if she was able to return to work. If she was, I never heard that. I, too, would love to have an update.
 

Roy S

former DC ME/CFS lobbyist
Messages
1,376
Location
Illinois, USA
Elaine is still alive but disabled. She knows her previous research was replicatable. I think she'll enjoy public vindication.
 

meandthecat

Senior Member
Messages
206
Location
West country UK
hi Pam I picked up on your mention of a steroid that had helped with your symptoms.
I have been using DHEA and whilst far from perfect it has given me back enough of my life to feel like myself again.
I wondered what you use and how it works for you. ed
 

starryeyes

Senior Member
Messages
1,558
Location
Bay Area, California
RetroVirus Discovered in CFS Back in 1991

Hi All,

I started this as a separate thread here and the Mods appropriately moved it to this thread so I didn't address what you all had written here as I just read it now. Is that confusing enough? lol Anyway, it seems we were on a similar track at PH as you were here. It's been fascinating reading what you've all written. Isn't this whole story amazing?

Well here's what I had worked on around the same time period:

I've been wondering if XMRV is the Retrovirus CAV that De Freitas found in 1991. Luminescent posted this link to the Retrovirus De Freitas had found there which I recalled reading long ago. Sorry in advance for all the capital letters but there was no way at PH to make things bold. Here's the post:

Link to the Article: http://www.ncf-net.org/forum/revelations.html


This seems very compelling so I've left it below and want to put it up here as well: "Characterization of cracr proteins of CAV reveals that "animal retroviruses that have been shown to express cracr proteins of these molecular weights are: primate D-type retroviruses; primate C-type; lentiviruses (EIAV but not HIV); MOUSE B-type (MMTV)." MOUSE RETROVIRUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway this article brings up major questions for me and it's also been forever since I read Osler's Web. I'm going to put some quotes from the article on here out of order because certain parts are more important right now to us than others.

Wistar Institute, Dr. Elaine DeFreitas, and the Cheney-Bell-DeFreitas Work: Startling Revelations from Wistar's World Patent and Serious Reasons for Concern Now Revealed! The following article was written By Alan Cocchetto and all views expressed are his:

"The present invention provides compositions and methods for diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis of Chronic Fatigue Immunodysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) based on the detection of the presence of a novel CFIDS-ASSOCIATED VIRUS (CAV) in the body fluids or tissues of a patient.

If the NIH ignored the depth of this work, then the NIH dropped the ball on this one and the agency should be held accountable! The inventors even state "The ability to screen BLOOD SAMPLES infected by CAV enables producers and distributors of blood products, e.g. the American Red Cross, to identify and DISCARD DONATED BLOOD SAMPLES which are intended for use in transfusions or in the isolation of plasma, therapeutically useful blood proteins and blood cells. If unscreened, the use of such blood and blood-derived products could contribute to the spread of CFIDS." The implications here are staggering!

The summary of the invention is as follows: "The present invention provides a novel, substantially isolated Chronic Fatigue Immunodeficiency Syndrome-associated virus, hereafter referred to by the name CAV. Also disclosed by this invention are methods and assays for diagnosing and/or treating CFIDS patients.

The inventors state: "CAV may be morphologically characterized as a RETROVIRUS, particularly a non-C RETROVIRUS which is capable of infecting humans. CAV-infected cells could be characterized by electron-dense circular virions, associated with the rough endoplasmic reticulum and inside large abnormally distended MITOCHONDRIA in the cells. All particles are the same shape and size, 46-50 nm. The apparent location of its virions in the mitochondria distinguishes CAV from HIV."

Characterization of cracr proteins of CAV reveals that "animal retroviruses that have been shown to express cracr proteins of these molecular weights are: primate D-type retroviruses; primate C-type; lentiviruses (EIAV but not HIV); MOUSE B-type (MMTV); avian C-type retroviruses, and perhaps Foamy (Spuma) viruses.

The inventors then provide additional characteristics of the retrovirus such as its ability to INFECT BOTH T AND B-CELLS and that the primer binding site is for the transfer RNA, or tRNA, of lysine indicating that CAV is a non-C type RETROVIRUS. The inventors examined LOW MOLECULAR WEIGHT sas proteins and found the presence of p11-12, p13-14, and p27-28. Classes of primate and nonprimate ANIMAL RETROVIRUSES have such characteristically sized sas proteins.

Of course, all inventors identify their TEST KIT - one that is necessary for hospitals, doctors, etc. to officially DIAGNOSE the patient as having this illness. "The methods, probes, primers, and antibodies described herein may be efficiently utilized in the assembly of a diagnostic TEST KIT, which may be used by health care providers for the DIAGNOSIS AND/OR TREATMENT of CFIDS."

The inventors also discuss the details of a CFIDS VACCINE and the VACCINE composition! Furthermore, they disclose that "For performance of these experiments, patient body fluid samples were obtained from clinical practices in North Carolina and New York.

Extensive test results are disclosed at this point and the inventors reveal: "The results of the same PCR analyses of blood samples from adult CFIDS patients was compared with persons with whom they live or closely associate, e.g. roommates and friends (called Exposure Controls). Nonexposure controls are healthy persons selected at random who have not come into contact with CFIDS patients nor experienced symptoms associated with CFIDS." The inventors report their data from CFIDS patients including pediatric CFIDS patients!

To quote the patent, "the positive results seen in the Exposure Controls support the possibility that this CAV is capable of casual transmission to non-infected persons, as is the case with many non-human retroviruses." Now, if the NIH ignored this last comment, then something is dramatically wrong with the agency that is supposed to protect and safeguard the welfare of the citizens of the United States! Again, the implications here are just staggering!

Any way you cut this, the only conclusion that can be reached is that this work is very thorough and extensive. IT HAS BEEN FUNDED BY THE NIH! And I believe that, the NIH certainly has more than a singular idea about what is happening to us as patients, all the while DENYING THE EXISTENCE OF RETROVIRAL INVOLVEMENT and not providing details to outside scientists for additional examination and perhaps subsequent replication! Any RETROVIRUS that can INVADE THE MITOCHONDRIA directly indicates trouble! Why? Because THE MITOCHONDRIA are the energy powerhouses in the body and a direct infection of them spells major trouble --- alteration of MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION AND DYSFUNCTION in energy production! This could very well account for the patient's lack of stamina and that 'F-word', fatigue!

As far as I'm concerned here, there needs to be a criminal investigation of the NIH regarding why they refused to fund upon submission of all this data. Maybe then, some heads will roll and we'll begin to get some real answers! After all, each and every patient certainly deserves this and so much more!

[Ed. Note: Dr. DeFrietas presented much of this work at the Albany Medical Convention in 1991. She also submitted a paper of the work to the PNAS three times but was turned down. Why? Were the same people at the NIH who refused to fund her threatening the publication in some way? The refusal to fund her along with the CFIDS Assoc. pulling her funding lost us more than a decade of work!]" End Quote of the article by Alan Cochetto.

Boy, is that last statement prophetic!

http://www.ncf-net.org/forum/revelations.html