6/3 update:
Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease response. (.pdf)
Thirty years of murine gammaretroviral research provide compelling evidence
that these viruses cause immune deficiencies, neurological disease and cancer in
mammals and are therefore possible contributors to human neuro-immune diseases
such as CFS. However, good scientific work is difficult and takes time
The association of XMRV with cancers and diseases in humans has now been proven to be due to contamination from laboratory experiments
5/31
Oya Cingöz of Tufts is part of research team now concluding that a retrovirus linked to chronic fatigue syndrome is not related to the illness but was likely introduced after “contamination of laboratories and research reagents with the virus.”
Science, which published the original study linking the syndrome and the virus, today released an “Editorial Expression of Concern” about the October 23, 2009 article.
The study by Lombardi et al. attracted considerable attention, and its publication in Science has had a far-reaching impact on the community of CFS patients and beyond. Because the validity of the study by Lombardi et al. is now seriously in question, we are publishing this Expression of Concern.
The paper is the latest development in the debate over the findings.
Nature offered this run down in a March profile of the author of the original study, Judy Mikovits, a viral immunologist at the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI) in Reno, Nevada. :
Numerous follow-up studies have found no link between the virus and the disease; no group has published a replication of her findings; and some scientists argue that XMRV is an artefact of laboratory contamination. Now, even some of Mikovits’s former collaborators are having second thoughts.
Mikovits has dug in, however, attacking her critics’ methods and motives. She says that their distrust of her science stems from doubts about the legitimacy of chronic fatigue syndrome itself. Chronic fatigue, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, affects an estimated 17 million people worldwide, but it is extremely difficult to diagnose. Many with the disorder are told that their symptoms — which include exhaustion, joint and muscle pain, cognitive issues, and heart and respiratory problems — are psychosomatic. “I had no idea there was that much bias against this disease,” Mikovits says.
The stakes are high and many are taking the risks seriously. Several countries have barred people with chronic fatigue from donating blood in case the virus spreads (see ‘Something in the blood’). And the US government has launched a US$1.3-million study to investigate the link. Patients are already being tested for XMRV, and some are taking antiviral drugs on the assumption that the virus causes chronic fatigue by attacking their immune defences. Many say that such action is premature, but Mikovits is steadfast. “We’re not changing our course,” she says.
The story notes that Jonathan Stoye of the National Institute for Medical Research in London and John Coffin, a retrovirologist at Tufts penned a comment on the original article. The story quoted Coffin saying he satisfied with the data and thought it was time to “let the field and public chew on them.”
Apparently, the findings were fodder for Coffin’s own lab staff. Oya Cingöz is listed on a Tufts’ site as genetics student in Coffin’s lab.