Fry Laboratories XMRV/MLV Findings

[JohnnyD]

http://frylabs.com/xmrv.php

"Fry Laboratories is in approximate agreement with an NIH study [23] where approximately 7.7% of an unselected population displaying detectable levels of murine leukemia viruses (MLV) related proviruses. We have sequenced fragments of these patient-derived genomes and have discovered novel variants of the XMRV and MLV-related viruses beyond what is published in the literature. Little is known about MLV viruses and the literature is not resolved about its health effects. We have detected it at a non-trivial rate and it is plausible that XMRV and related viruses represents a major health concern in the United States."

 

[Tia]

Interesting..it's coming out more and more now. Seems they can't deny it anymore.

 

[Jemal]

Interesting..it's coming out more and more now. Seems they can't deny it anymore.

Yes, more and more labs and researchers seem to get involved. I have the feeling this could turn into something bigger than HIV (unfortunately)...

 

[Esther12]

How respectable are Fry Laboratories? There are slightly dodgy places about offering tests... an endorsement from somewhere like that would be meaningless. (Not saying this is the case with Fry - I've not heard of them).

 

[Jemal]

How respectable are Fry Laboratories? There are slightly dodgy places about offering tests... an endorsement from somewhere like that would be meaningless. (Not saying this is the case with Fry - I've not heard of them).

Well, that's a good question. I found this blog about the laboratory:

http://lymemd.blogspot.com/2008/07/fry-labs-what-are-hemobartonella.html

So this doesn't seem to be a big lab and it might even be called dodgy by some (but this is just one source).

Nonetheless, I have the feeling more and more people are getting involved in XMRV and more studies are popping up and that's great (so long as there are also big names involved, with good reputations).

 

[Esther12]

Nonetheless, I have the feeling more and more people are getting involved in XMRV and more studies are popping up and that's great (so long as there are also big names involved, with good reputations).

Thanks for the googling Jemal.

 

[JohnnyD]

Yes, thanks for googling Jamal. I posted this is haste without googling. Maybe this post should be removed. We don't want to give credence to fly by night labs trying to hop on the band wagon. It looks like they used PCR only and are only testing healthy people?? Doesn't seem quite right. The perils of the internet.

 

[Esther12]

The perils of the internet.

The great thing about forums like this is that people can discuss and examine the scraps of info they've found. It's worth posting stuff like this up just so that you can get a range of opinions.

 

[Cort]

It's good to dig into this stuff and get it out....My take on the XMRV Buzz page

Arizona Lab Says Yes to XMRV? - JohnnyD on the PR Forums dug up a statement from diagnostic and research lab in Scottsdale, Arizona called Fry Labs - that yes, they are finding XMRV/XMLV's. Fry appears to specialize in tick borne and other parasites and bacteria. XMRV appears to be the only virus, let alone retrovirus, they are looking for.

They present a nicely written, well documented paper altho their grammar isn't too spectacular - check out this sentence in which two misspelled words in this sentence (provial instead of proviral, our instead of for) "Fry Laboratories offers our research use PCR assay for licensed clinicians and health care professionals that specifically detects two different loci of these related provial genomes."

They are sequencing everything they find and appear to be finding more XMLV's than XMRV...and they appear to be finding them in levels similar to those Lot/Alter found in health controls; they state

Any positive result from either region is followed up with direct sequencing and analysis. Fry Laboratories is in approximate agreement with an NIH study [23] where approximately 7.7% of an unselected population displaying detectable levels of murine leukemia viruses (MLV) related proviruses. We have sequenced fragments of these patient-derived genomes and have discovered novel variants of the XMRV and MLV-related viruses beyond what is published in the literature."

Some digging from a Forum found a blog which has some questions about the lab and stated it is run by a single general practitioner who is not a board certified laboratory pathologist. There are definitely some warning signs; it's a small lab - that is not experienced with retroviruses (or viruses) - that is finding new variants that other larger, more sophisticated and experienced labs have not been able to find...it's something to be careful about. They are offering the XMRV test for physicians.

 

[Bob]

As the LymeMD blog points out, Fry Labs don't post any evidence of their findings, and there doesn't appear to be any information saying that they are publishing any papers. So we need to keep in mind that this is a commercial set-up, selling their products. There's no peer-reviewing involved, and no professional oversight of the XMRV testing, as far as I can tell, except that they "participate in both CAP and API quality control programs", but I don't know exactly how much oversight they give. As we don't know anything about their methodology, their findings, or any of their research, we can't tell how accurate their testing might be, or how significant their research findings are, and it might well be possible that they are getting false readings. I would have thought that if Fry Labs are more advanced than Lo and Alter (world class virologists) in their research, then they might like to publish their findings (i.e. their sequencing results etc.)

 

[eric_s]

I agree that Fry Labs seems to be very small and i have no idea neither wheter they (he ;-) ) can be trusted or not. But nevertheless i always like to see someone who offers a test for money make that sort of claims. Because i think if you sell something and do so by giving misleading information to your customers you are running a bigger risk for legal consequences than if you only do sloppy science or even deliberately fake your results. So you would only do that if you're stupid or prepared to run away or very clever and have found a way to do it without being fraud. I wish it would be a bigger lab and i would not go and buy their test, but still i prefer that news to silence.