Reason for cheer!:Retro smile:
:Retro smile:
Just stumbled on this at the website for the 17th Conference on Retroviral Infections and Opportunistic Infections, in San Francisco all this week. HOT stuff on XMRV!: http://www.ifarablog.org/2010/02/friday-press-conference-1-mouse-to-man.html
Lots of video archived, and I just wasn't up to wading thru most of it. BUT I can't sleep from achiness tonight anyway, and my heart is behaving itself tonite, so I DID get some goodies. There were 3 videos - one a press conference on XMRV with Dr Stephen Goff, and the others video interviews with Dr John Coffin, then Dr Goff again, parts of which that just rocked! To navigate thru the videos, start with the hotlink above. Watch the video, then click the "More" button. Then just keep clicking the > button on the bottom left side of the video image to move thru the other videos.
Bottom line, we've got some very smart retrovirologists all hot and bothered about XMRV. Remember what I said about XMRV's ugly sister (ME/CFS) that gets dragged along to the ball? Well, it's happening, and if anything, the discordant findings on XMRV seem to be spurring these retrovirology top-guns on to search harder - NOT to give up!
Excerpts from John Coffins interview.
Go get'em! :Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile:
:Retro smile:Just stumbled on this at the website for the 17th Conference on Retroviral Infections and Opportunistic Infections, in San Francisco all this week. HOT stuff on XMRV!: http://www.ifarablog.org/2010/02/friday-press-conference-1-mouse-to-man.html
Lots of video archived, and I just wasn't up to wading thru most of it. BUT I can't sleep from achiness tonight anyway, and my heart is behaving itself tonite, so I DID get some goodies. There were 3 videos - one a press conference on XMRV with Dr Stephen Goff, and the others video interviews with Dr John Coffin, then Dr Goff again, parts of which that just rocked! To navigate thru the videos, start with the hotlink above. Watch the video, then click the "More" button. Then just keep clicking the > button on the bottom left side of the video image to move thru the other videos.
Bottom line, we've got some very smart retrovirologists all hot and bothered about XMRV. Remember what I said about XMRV's ugly sister (ME/CFS) that gets dragged along to the ball? Well, it's happening, and if anything, the discordant findings on XMRV seem to be spurring these retrovirology top-guns on to search harder - NOT to give up!
Interviewer: Were here with John Coffin who is co-chair of the CROI (Conference on Retroviral Infections and Opportunistic Infections) can you give us a sense of, introduce us to some of the amazing things that are happening here at the conference. I know that you always try tend to downplay things because they are early.
Coffin: Of course basic science is always at the beginning and you dont know when you start to build on that towards clinical utility, whats going to work out and what will not
There was quite a bit here just in the sessions this morning on the new virus, the brand new virus called XMRV which is a retrovirus but its not like HIV, its not a lentivirus, its very much like viruses that I and Dr Goff who gave the presentation this morning on the subject, have been studying for years and years and years I mean really since the 70s. Weve been looking at these viruses for 35 years or more. These viruses were recently discovered to be in association with possible association with prostate cancer in humans and perhaps chronic fatigue syndrome. There was a very exciting paper on that. Other studies that have been published recently are not necessarily concordant with those findings. There is no question I think that the virus is real and that the virus is infecting some numbers of people. And its VERY (Coffin's emphasis) important to figure out where it is going as far as all of its disease associations are concerned its very early days if you think back to 1983 and what it was like with HIV, how uncertain things are, how long it really takes to grind the sausage (!:Retro smile and come to a consensus to understand whats really going onWere still in a pre-consensus stage with this virus, and although its annoying and confusing, its really exciting. (WE WANT EXCITED RETROVIROLOGISTS!)
. A couple of talks today discussed animal models (and XMRV) (Macaque monkeys) theyve been able to follow this virus in animal models. Takes a long time until you have disease (mutopathogenic model) In mice these (murine leukemia) viruses cause cancer, immunodeficiencies, neurological disease there is good reason at least to think that these viruses may be associated with disease in humans, perhaps prostate cancer, perhaps Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
When asked by the interviewer: Was there anything else you took away from this conference, Coffin responded, Those (including the XMRV topic) are the main highlights.
From Stephen Goff's interviewCoffin: Of course basic science is always at the beginning and you dont know when you start to build on that towards clinical utility, whats going to work out and what will not
There was quite a bit here just in the sessions this morning on the new virus, the brand new virus called XMRV which is a retrovirus but its not like HIV, its not a lentivirus, its very much like viruses that I and Dr Goff who gave the presentation this morning on the subject, have been studying for years and years and years I mean really since the 70s. Weve been looking at these viruses for 35 years or more. These viruses were recently discovered to be in association with possible association with prostate cancer in humans and perhaps chronic fatigue syndrome. There was a very exciting paper on that. Other studies that have been published recently are not necessarily concordant with those findings. There is no question I think that the virus is real and that the virus is infecting some numbers of people. And its VERY (Coffin's emphasis) important to figure out where it is going as far as all of its disease associations are concerned its very early days if you think back to 1983 and what it was like with HIV, how uncertain things are, how long it really takes to grind the sausage (!:Retro smile
and come to a consensus to understand whats really going onWere still in a pre-consensus stage with this virus, and although its annoying and confusing, its really exciting. (WE WANT EXCITED RETROVIROLOGISTS!). A couple of talks today discussed animal models (and XMRV) (Macaque monkeys) theyve been able to follow this virus in animal models. Takes a long time until you have disease (mutopathogenic model) In mice these (murine leukemia) viruses cause cancer, immunodeficiencies, neurological disease there is good reason at least to think that these viruses may be associated with disease in humans, perhaps prostate cancer, perhaps Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
When asked by the interviewer: Was there anything else you took away from this conference, Coffin responded, Those (including the XMRV topic) are the main highlights.
Goff: We know very little about its mode of transmission. We dont have any reason yet to be excited about any pathology but its certainly something we want to pay attention to and make sure were not missing anything. (NOTE: Remember, this is early stages)
... And so we live as humans with a lot of viruses that are non-pathogenic or that are not detrimental to the population (My note: We know from the French study this week that the envelope has an immunosuppressive function - i.e. XRMV is NOT an innocent bystander) I think people want to know a lot of simple things. It would be great to know the origin if it was a mouseWed love to know the tissues in which it replicates, and we know a little about that now because weve studied the virus in culture....the most important maybe is the prevalence in the human population, which we dont know.
Interviewer: Are there any other colleagues working on this, or is there some sense of urgency, or just casually looking at it
Goff: The NCI is pretty serious about it, they dont want to miss anything. And they want to play a role in identifying the properties of this virus and its potential risks. So theyre pretty serious about it. The range of anxiety is from very mild to the worst scenarios: Gosh, do we need to be worried about it getting into the blood bank. Do we need to be concerned if its really causing a certain subset of prostate ca. And the latest is the potential link reported last year of an association with CFS which would be very exciting because thats a disease that has struggled to find a viral cause.
Interviewer: So that might be the cause?
Goff: Could be
Interviewer:. We talked about not being alarmist.
From Press Conference with Dr Goff (the first video): ... And so we live as humans with a lot of viruses that are non-pathogenic or that are not detrimental to the population (My note: We know from the French study this week that the envelope has an immunosuppressive function - i.e. XRMV is NOT an innocent bystander) I think people want to know a lot of simple things. It would be great to know the origin if it was a mouseWed love to know the tissues in which it replicates, and we know a little about that now because weve studied the virus in culture....the most important maybe is the prevalence in the human population, which we dont know.
Interviewer: Are there any other colleagues working on this, or is there some sense of urgency, or just casually looking at it
Goff: The NCI is pretty serious about it, they dont want to miss anything. And they want to play a role in identifying the properties of this virus and its potential risks. So theyre pretty serious about it. The range of anxiety is from very mild to the worst scenarios: Gosh, do we need to be worried about it getting into the blood bank. Do we need to be concerned if its really causing a certain subset of prostate ca. And the latest is the potential link reported last year of an association with CFS which would be very exciting because thats a disease that has struggled to find a viral cause.
Interviewer: So that might be the cause?
Goff: Could be
Interviewer:. We talked about not being alarmist.
"What you all know at this point is that XMRV was recovered from a series of prostate cancer samples from patients a few years ago and immediately it was apparent from the sequence of that recovered virus was that it was exceedingly similar to the xenotropic virus in mice so I talked a bit about that history that goes back actually to the 70s. The appearance of this virus in human samples was exciting. (AGAIN, WE WANT HOT AND BOTHERED RETROVIROLOGISTS!) This virus causes diseases in mice that would be of concern if similar things were happening in people. The XMRV virus has at this point a very controversial history because as John Coffin said, this is early days. I would say in the prostate cancer area there is a lot better consensus of the recovery of the virus repeatedly in many labs. Incidence of the recovery is very low. The range is pretty high, from 0 to 20%. But maybe theres a fairly common recovery of it in a few percent of samples. So it (XMRV) is definitely out there. I talked about the behavior of the virus in culture which in our hands is quite vigorous. Its a very easy to grow virus in the right cell types. Several of the talks today talked about some of the behavior of the virus, for example its androgen responsive, or GRE responsive. Hormone responsive the receptor that it uses. Both of which bear on cell types in which it can be found. The most recent exciting work of course is the discovery in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that too is very controversial. Some people are finding it, some not. I think that will have to be worked out in the coming months and years. (GOOD - THEY'RE NOT GIVING UP)!The questions which will have to be addressed are indeed the prevalence of the virus. How is it transmitted. Where does it come from etc. From a single transmission from the mouse or is it being repeatedly transmitted in separate incidents we dont know these things. But for sure its a virus that we need to know more about. (!!!!) We need to have people, as we brought up this morning, sharing samples, sharing assays, trying to come to a consensus about all these issues and I think it will come."
Presentations included:) We need to have people, as we brought up this morning, sharing samples, sharing assays, trying to come to a consensus about all these issues and I think it will come."
- XMRV: Examination of Viral Kinetics, Tissue Tropism and Serological Markers of Infection. John Hackett Jr, Abbott Diagnostics, Abbott Park, IL US
- Mouse to Man? XMRV and Human Disease. Stephen Goff, Columbia Univ Coll of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, NY, US
- Virus-Host Interaction: HIV and XMRV Organ and Cell Lineage Dissemination of XMRV in Rhesus Macaques during Acute and Chronic Infection. Prachi Sharma, Yerkes Natl Primate Res Ctr, Emory Univ, Atlanta, GA, US
And finally: Click back to this website http://www.ifarablog.org/p/treatment-update-2010.html where you will be able to watch IFARA's program, "Treatment Update 2010", from the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). (NOTE: Not sure if it will address XMRV at all)
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
3-5pm Eastern Time
2-4pm Central Time
1-3pm Mountain Time
noon-2pm Pacific Time
11am-1pm Alaska Time
10am - Noon Hawaii Time
Cheered up now? Saturday, February 20th, 2010
3-5pm Eastern Time
2-4pm Central Time
1-3pm Mountain Time
noon-2pm Pacific Time
11am-1pm Alaska Time
10am - Noon Hawaii Time
Go get'em! :Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile:
