What a bunch of naive fools we've been. We've been working on the assumption that the threat of XMRV in the blood supply would get the government's attention and force then into action when in truth it has forced them into a defensive posture.
What is really going to get the scientists going is the threat that they themselves have been infected as they have been handling murine retroviruses for the last 35 years.
In fact, this is the first time that I have actually heard William Switzer use the phrase "we share your concern" in reference to XMRV and MLVs but he's talking about lab workers and what now seems to be the consensus that XMRV ad MLVs were human created and that they are highly contagious! But don't worry, these highly contagious man-made retroviruses aren't in the general population but we do get the occasional odd positive in a pedigreed negative (lab worker) that we've simply ignored until now.
Themed Discussion: XMRV: New Findings and Controversies
3/2/2011 1:00 PM
http://app2.capitalreach.com/esp120...&&dp=player.jsp&e=13744&mediaType=podiumVideo
I haven't seen much discussion on the Q & A portion of the XMRV section of the CROI conference.
I'll get right to the bit I want to discuss. At minute 50:45 a very interesting discussion starts about the future studies in XMRV.
Two comments stood out.
"Dusty Miller and Steve Goff have shown some pretty convincing evidence that this virus behaves differently than other MLVs."
"Is preXMRV-2 infectious?" "Currently the only experiments underway are trying to figure out if this virus, pre-XMRV-2 is infectious. When you look at the full length sequence it seems to have open reading frames and so there seems to be no reason for it not to be infectious. But we don;t have any results on that."
You can mostly ignore the large self absorbed guy.
"I know a number of people who have been working with these mouse viruses for years and it (XMRV) does seem to be behaving differently."
"At least in culture, this is a replicating virus that can cause an infection in primary human cells in addition to cell lines and can pass to other cells and it is different from a lot of known MLVs so from a basic science perspective there is some interest in this virus."
Mike Bush - Director, Blood Systems Research Institute - "I think that there is no doubt after this meeting that this virus arose from a recombination when an original prostate tumor was explanted and propagated and it's extraordinarily infectious. In vitro it is clearly demonstrating infectivity and in explants and a variety of human cell lines and it can transmit into non-human primates. I'm a little concerned, this was human created in the laboratory and its a highly infectious retrovirus. And subsequent to that event, could it transmit to humans? We've been doing studies in pedigreed negative controls, some of whom happen to be lab workers working with this virus who intermittently score positive in one lab or another and I've just ignored that but now I'm beginning to be a little concerned that might there be transient infections in humans. Has anyone embarked on studies to look at nucleic acid or serologic detectability in lab workers who have or are working with these cell lines?"
Again, ignore the large obnoxious self-absorbed guy (who reassures himself that the test he did on himself was not a false negative).
William Switzer - CDC - (@ 54:55 min. - look at how anxious he is to get his hands on the mike :worried
"I just wanted to add to that, we share your concern Mike and we (THE CDC) have started a study looking at some archived specimens that we've screen and found other simian retroviruses for example and we're going to look for XMRV and other MLVs."
What is really going to get the scientists going is the threat that they themselves have been infected as they have been handling murine retroviruses for the last 35 years.
In fact, this is the first time that I have actually heard William Switzer use the phrase "we share your concern" in reference to XMRV and MLVs but he's talking about lab workers and what now seems to be the consensus that XMRV ad MLVs were human created and that they are highly contagious! But don't worry, these highly contagious man-made retroviruses aren't in the general population but we do get the occasional odd positive in a pedigreed negative (lab worker) that we've simply ignored until now.
Themed Discussion: XMRV: New Findings and Controversies
3/2/2011 1:00 PM
http://app2.capitalreach.com/esp120...&&dp=player.jsp&e=13744&mediaType=podiumVideo
I haven't seen much discussion on the Q & A portion of the XMRV section of the CROI conference.
I'll get right to the bit I want to discuss. At minute 50:45 a very interesting discussion starts about the future studies in XMRV.
Two comments stood out.
"Dusty Miller and Steve Goff have shown some pretty convincing evidence that this virus behaves differently than other MLVs."
"Is preXMRV-2 infectious?" "Currently the only experiments underway are trying to figure out if this virus, pre-XMRV-2 is infectious. When you look at the full length sequence it seems to have open reading frames and so there seems to be no reason for it not to be infectious. But we don;t have any results on that."
You can mostly ignore the large self absorbed guy.
"I know a number of people who have been working with these mouse viruses for years and it (XMRV) does seem to be behaving differently."
"At least in culture, this is a replicating virus that can cause an infection in primary human cells in addition to cell lines and can pass to other cells and it is different from a lot of known MLVs so from a basic science perspective there is some interest in this virus."
Mike Bush - Director, Blood Systems Research Institute - "I think that there is no doubt after this meeting that this virus arose from a recombination when an original prostate tumor was explanted and propagated and it's extraordinarily infectious. In vitro it is clearly demonstrating infectivity and in explants and a variety of human cell lines and it can transmit into non-human primates. I'm a little concerned, this was human created in the laboratory and its a highly infectious retrovirus. And subsequent to that event, could it transmit to humans? We've been doing studies in pedigreed negative controls, some of whom happen to be lab workers working with this virus who intermittently score positive in one lab or another and I've just ignored that but now I'm beginning to be a little concerned that might there be transient infections in humans. Has anyone embarked on studies to look at nucleic acid or serologic detectability in lab workers who have or are working with these cell lines?"
Again, ignore the large obnoxious self-absorbed guy (who reassures himself that the test he did on himself was not a false negative).
William Switzer - CDC - (@ 54:55 min. - look at how anxious he is to get his hands on the mike :worried
"I just wanted to add to that, we share your concern Mike and we (THE CDC) have started a study looking at some archived specimens that we've screen and found other simian retroviruses for example and we're going to look for XMRV and other MLVs."
