Bob
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Only if these findings can be replicated, Bob.
Indeed. So let's have replication studies please.
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Only if these findings can be replicated, Bob.
....
Even if the specificity of the antibodies is unknown, the antibody results back-up the WPI's PCR results...
Indeed. So let's have replication studies please.
That's a pretty cheap shot, Bob, and not in the spirit of the conversation.
These findings are only meaningful if they can be *reproduced*.
That wasn't a cheap shot Sam. I was being serious.
You said that the antibody results are only meaningful if they can be replicated, so I remarked that we should have replication studies.
What I actually meant was that it would be a good thing to allow replication studies to be carried out before we come to any conclusions about XMRV.
Indeed, the WPI's and Alter's results do need to be reproduced, and that's a work in progress.
There are a number of reported unpublished positive studies in the pipeline, including Beiger, Hanson, De Meirlier.
There is an immense amount of XMRV research going on at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how it all works out.
At the moment there are about 5 positive prostate studies as well, along with all of the other XMRV research which has confirmed that XMRV lives in human cells.
Switzer of the CDC has now detected XMRV in prostate cancer but admits that he hasn't got adequate technology to detect the low copy numbers in the blood of XMRV positive patients.
Sorry, Bob, I take that back about the cheap shot. I'm knackered and this has got a whole lot more heated than I expected or wanted!
My guess is that, despite superficial differences, our position on XMRV isn't a million miles apart.
Off to bed for me .......
Hi SamHi Eric,
If you ever get a chance to watch the pre-conference, round-table discussion between the presenters at IiME 2010 you'll see that Prof Huber was somewhat marginalised and not given a full opportunity to speak. She tried to bring up the results of her preliminary XMRV research (the research which indicated contamination as a possible explanation) but struggled to get her voice heard and left the meeting midway, clearly upset.
It was frustrating to watch because she evidently had something important to contribute and an open discussion with Dr. M at that point would have been of great value.
It's become quite popular of late to knock Prof Huber (I'm not suggesting you are, Eric) despite her long-term commitment to biomedical research, just because she doesn't believe XMRV/MLVs contribute to the pathogenesis of ME.
When Lombardi and colleagues published their paper in Science she rated the paper as "exceptional" on the Faculty of 1000 website and said:
"For the first time, we now have evidence that an infectious agent is associated with this chronic disease. It remains to be shown whether XMRV is directly responsible for the symptoms, or induces expression of other cellular genes that lead to an inflammatory response. Regardless, these new findings open the door for therapeutic intervention of this dreaded disease."
These are not the words of a scientist with a closed mind and it was only when her own research could not reproduce the Lombardi findings that she began to look for alternative explanations.
Sam
Does anyone know what happened to Kristin Loomis' daughter/son? Because Dr. Snyderman said "had". Also it would be interesting to know more about the nature of the relationship between Konstance Knox and the WPI. I always thought it was a contract between the WPI and the Wisconsin Viral Research Group (with Konstance Knox being employed there) and not that Konstance Knox was employed by the WPI. But the recent blog entry sounded a bit as if she was employed by the WPI.