Interview with Stephen Goff April 4th 2010

[gracenote]

Thanks Kim and Robin. This is great. So much easier for me to read it than it is to listen to it. Best would be to read and listen at the same time. Very much appreciated.

 

[dmarie4301]

I have a couple questions and comments. Goff kept refering to a retrovirus he's been studying at the end of the talk....sounds like Maloni??? Does anyone know about this one??? I hadnt heard of it.

Also, I find the monkey experiment SO fascinating. Who did this study and when? I find it interesting that he said there were no signs of disease.....like us, we all look so good, right? Well, did they take blood from the monkeys and study killer cells, cytokines, etc. That would be good if they did. Did the monkeys act lazy, slept alot, unhappy? That would be CFS!! (Being alittle flipant here). I would like to know where more information is on that study. If someone posted it prior, just direct me. Thanks

Also, after pushing myself through the HERV dialogue, I found it interesting that a retrovirus can recombine with an endogenous one. Maybe Kurt is sortof right...maybe the XMRV has to combine with a particular endogenous retrovirus in our genome....boy Im getting better with this terminology

And thanks for the transcribers! Great job!

 

[Robin]

I have a couple questions and comments. Goff kept refering to a retrovirus he's been studying at the end of the talk....sounds like Maloni??? Does anyone know about this one??? I hadnt heard of it.

Also, I find the monkey experiment SO fascinating. Who did this study and when? I find it interesting that he said there were no signs of disease.....like us, we all look so good, right? Well, did they take blood from the monkeys and study killer cells, cytokines, etc.

The virus he was referring to is Molony mouse retrovirus. It's not zoonotic (meaning it's only in mice).

There was a thread here about the primate study (but I'm really bad at using the search feature). From what I understand the animals were infected to determine if XMRV can infect them, ie is it infectious? (answer: yes) The purpose wasn't to determine pathology of CFS. It was more preliminary than that -- I don't know if their NKC and all were examined but probably not.

 

[Cort]

Hell, if you innoculate primates with XMRV, how can they tell for sure the primates get CFS? Will they do tilt table tests to these animals?

They could simply monitor activity levels - they do that alot with animal studies - as well as lab tests. The animals could end up being very lethargic. I imagine there will be more to come on that study.

Thanks Kim and Robin - I added it to the Front page.

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

Well I posted a comment after the article on the site. But it has disappeared. It is frustrating to take my limited time and energy to bring together to put together a well-structured response only to see it disappear.

Tina

 

[Dolphin]

Well I posted a comment after the article on the site. But it has disappeared. It is frustrating to take my limited time and energy to bring together to put together a well-structured response only to see it disappear.

Tina

Yes, will hopefully comment was sent on to SG. I saw your comment 60-90 minutes ago.

 

[Robin]

Thanks Kim and Robin - I added it to the Front page.

Cort, that's only half of it! There were no volunteers for parts 3 and 4.

 

[fred]

The WPI has said on its Facebook page that it was not invited to the CROI (Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections) mentioned by Goff. Should anything be read into this?

 

[ixchelkali]

Also, I find the monkey experiment SO fascinating. Who did this study and when? I find it interesting that he said there were no signs of disease.....like us, we all look so good, right? Well, did they take blood from the monkeys and study killer cells, cytokines, etc. That would be good if they did. Did the monkeys act lazy, slept alot, unhappy? That would be CFS!! (Being alittle flipant here). I would like to know where more information is on that study. If someone posted it prior, just direct me. Thanks

The studies on the Rhesus Macaques were presented at the CROI conference on retrovirology. They can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/yeyels8 but I think you need Real Player. Once it loads, scroll down index to Prachi Sharma. Or go to http://www.retroconference.org/2010/data/files/webcast_2010.htm to see other options, such as downloading an MP3 file.

Thanks to those who transcribed this. I had listened to it on the TWiV website, but it's very helpful to be able to read it. I found it fascinating, like listening in on a couple of retrovirologists talking about XMRV. Oh, wait...that's what it WAS.