Feb. Retrovirology Paper-CDC: It's the patients not the test!

[eric_s]

Well it seems that mouse DNA is everywhere in city drinking water which is used in labs and it is insanely hard to filter out even three stage reverse osmosis filters can not get rid of it. It has also been found in some heparin which is used in blood collection tubes. Since XMRV PCR tests cross react with mouse DNA this is a whole new level of possible contamination that no other virus studies in the past have had to deal with.

Sure, but they have tested for mouse DNA and have not found any. And also i think at least one of the Ruscettis has worked with MLVs for a long time and is thus probably familiar with that problem. I just find it hard to believe that those people (Ruscetti, Alter, Lo, WPI) make the same mistake over and over again (allowing contamination and not being able to detect it) for such a long time. But i agree, at this point we don't know and have to wait, unfortunately.

 

[Angela Kennedy]

Sure, but they have tested for mouse DNA and have not found any. And also i think at least one of the Ruscettis has worked with MLVs for a long time and is thus probably familiar with that problem. I just find it hard to believe that those people (Ruscetti, Alter, Lo, WPI) make the same mistake over and over again (allowing contamination and not being able to detect it) for such a long time. But i agree, at this point we don't know and have to wait, unfortunately.

And also, all these negative studies that have NOT even detected this rampant contamination of mouse dna?

 

[Stephen12]

I don't think it's the patients. To me it looked like this study did not target the usual bunch of depressed people the CDC liked to do their studies on. And I agree with eric_s that at least some people should have tested positive for the virus, given the prevalence of the virus in healthy control groups in positive studies.

You are correct regarding the healthy controls in the CDC study. In my opinion, the CDC scientists are obligated to tell the research community how exactly they chose their healthy controls population. Are they people in the same community(ies) in the U.S. as are the CFS pts.? Did they choose a different region? Age and sex controlled? Heaven forbid are they people in Britain, where XMRV may be less prevalent??? If the CDC is playing fast and loose w/ its definition of CFS, then we may also be free to assume they are capable of doing the same w/ the healthy controls.