I'm figuring anything that increases immune cell count could increase XMRV viral load
Attachment to IACFS/ME Newsletter, Vol 3, Issue 1, April 2010
Q and A Session with Dr Mikovits
Q: From what I read, XMRV is infecting immune cells, If patients take nutriceuticals that have been shown to increase natural killer cell count, could some of this increase in NK cells come from dividing infected cells, thus risking a heavier load of XMRV?
A: Because XMRV research is in its infancy, little is know about tissue reservoirs....
<snip>
You could potentially increase the viral load by increasing the NK cell count. However, we have done studies with compounds that increase NK cell Killing without increasing NK replication or XMRV viral loads so NK cells kill better and can therefore be efficacious in killing XMRV infected cells.<snip>
[my emphases]
I'd give you a link, but all I have is a hard copy. Sorry.
I'm assuming for the time being that anything that increases, T-, B-, NK cell counts has the
potential to increase XMRV viral load. For that reason I'm avoiding most "immune enhancing" supplements until I know more.
Dr M says later in the same document:
Coinfecting viruses generate negative and positive signals the suppress or upregulate HIV-1, suggesting that signals generated by these viruses may largely affect XMRV transmission and pathogenesis as they do with HIV transmission and pathogenesis.
Note that this is all speculation at this point, we don't know very much at all about XMRV.
For myself and my family, I'm assuming for the moment that any herpesvirus infection is bad in combination with XMRV, particularly HHV-6 which is a known progression factor for HIV-->AIDS. So we're doing our best to eliminate those infections while we wait for XMRV treatment -- not that we know if we're XMRV+, yet.
I'm figuring there's no harm in avoiding things that upregulate the immune system and eliminating coinfections, so even if the speculation turns out to be wrong, no harm as been done.
