Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/health/research/09virus.html?_r=1&em
Virus Is Found in Many With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
By DENISE GRADY
Published: October 8, 2009
Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome are infected with a little known virus that may cause or at least contribute to their illness, researchers are reporting.
The syndrome, which causes prolonged and severe fatigue, body aches and other symptoms, has long been a mystery ailment, and patients have sometimes been suspected of malingering or having psychiatric problems rather than genuine physical ones. Worldwide, 17 million people have the syndrome, including at least one million Americans.
An article published online Thursday in the journal Science reports that 68 of 101 patients with the syndrome, or 67 percent, were infected with an infectious virus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV. By contrast, only 3.7 percent of 218 healthy people were infected. Continuing work after the paper was published has found the virus in nearly 98 percent of about 300 patients with the syndrome, said Dr. Judy A. Mikovits, the lead author of the paper.
XMRV is a retrovirus, a member of the same family of viruses as the AIDS virus. These viruses carry their genetic information in RNA rather than DNA, and they insert themselves into their hosts? genetic material and stay for life.
Dr. Mikovits and other scientists cautioned that they had not yet proved that the virus causes the syndrome. In theory, people with the syndrome may have some other, underlying health problem that makes them prone to being infected by the virus, which could be just a bystander. More studies are needed to explain the connection.
But Dr. Mikovits said she thought the virus would turn out to be the cause, not just of chronic fatigue, but of other illnesses as well. Previous studies have found it in cells taken from prostate cancers.
?I think this establishes what had always been considered a psychiatric disease as an infectious disease,? said Dr. Mikovits, who is research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, a nonprofit center created by the parents of a woman who has a severe case of the syndrome. Her co-authors include scientists from the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic?.
Xenotropic/Ecotropic Murine Leukemia Virus Testing
The risk of viral contamination is a feature common to all biotechnology products derived from cell lines. Murine cells used to produce biopharmaceutical products are known to harbor infectious retroviruses due to the breeding program (loss of a suppressor function on endogenous virus sequences) when used to produce the standard laboratory mouse. Retroviruses in these murine cells pose a particular problem in assessing the safety of cell substrates, as they may be transmitted in the germ line, since the viral genome persists within the cell. These endogenous retroviruses may be expressed without deleterious effects on the cells, and could be infectious to human cells?.
http://www.springerprotocols.com/Abstract/doi/10.1385/0-89603-547-6:23#CR1
Viral Evaluation of Animal Cell Lines Used in Biotechnology
By: Alasdair J. Shepherd2, Kenneth T. Smith
Abstract
Animal cell culture is being increasingly used for production of therapeutic reagents such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, viral vaccines and replication incompetent viral vectors for gene therapy. Material derived from a variety of biological processes has been associated in the past with incidents involving the transmission of infectious agents, principally viruses (1). Thus, virological evaluation of animal cell substrates for use in the manufacture of biologicals is essential to ensure the safety of products for pharmaceutical use.
Affiliation(s): (2) Q-One Biotech Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Book Title: Animal Cell Biotechnology: Methods and Protocols
Series: Methods in Biotechnology | Volume: 8 | Pub. Date: Feb-22-1999 | Page Range: 23-36 | DOI: 10.1385/0-89603-547-6:23
Virus Is Found in Many With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
By DENISE GRADY
Published: October 8, 2009
Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome are infected with a little known virus that may cause or at least contribute to their illness, researchers are reporting.
The syndrome, which causes prolonged and severe fatigue, body aches and other symptoms, has long been a mystery ailment, and patients have sometimes been suspected of malingering or having psychiatric problems rather than genuine physical ones. Worldwide, 17 million people have the syndrome, including at least one million Americans.
An article published online Thursday in the journal Science reports that 68 of 101 patients with the syndrome, or 67 percent, were infected with an infectious virus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV. By contrast, only 3.7 percent of 218 healthy people were infected. Continuing work after the paper was published has found the virus in nearly 98 percent of about 300 patients with the syndrome, said Dr. Judy A. Mikovits, the lead author of the paper.
XMRV is a retrovirus, a member of the same family of viruses as the AIDS virus. These viruses carry their genetic information in RNA rather than DNA, and they insert themselves into their hosts? genetic material and stay for life.
Dr. Mikovits and other scientists cautioned that they had not yet proved that the virus causes the syndrome. In theory, people with the syndrome may have some other, underlying health problem that makes them prone to being infected by the virus, which could be just a bystander. More studies are needed to explain the connection.
But Dr. Mikovits said she thought the virus would turn out to be the cause, not just of chronic fatigue, but of other illnesses as well. Previous studies have found it in cells taken from prostate cancers.
?I think this establishes what had always been considered a psychiatric disease as an infectious disease,? said Dr. Mikovits, who is research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, a nonprofit center created by the parents of a woman who has a severe case of the syndrome. Her co-authors include scientists from the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic?.
Xenotropic/Ecotropic Murine Leukemia Virus Testing
The risk of viral contamination is a feature common to all biotechnology products derived from cell lines. Murine cells used to produce biopharmaceutical products are known to harbor infectious retroviruses due to the breeding program (loss of a suppressor function on endogenous virus sequences) when used to produce the standard laboratory mouse. Retroviruses in these murine cells pose a particular problem in assessing the safety of cell substrates, as they may be transmitted in the germ line, since the viral genome persists within the cell. These endogenous retroviruses may be expressed without deleterious effects on the cells, and could be infectious to human cells?.
http://www.springerprotocols.com/Abstract/doi/10.1385/0-89603-547-6:23#CR1
Viral Evaluation of Animal Cell Lines Used in Biotechnology
By: Alasdair J. Shepherd2, Kenneth T. Smith
Abstract
Animal cell culture is being increasingly used for production of therapeutic reagents such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, viral vaccines and replication incompetent viral vectors for gene therapy. Material derived from a variety of biological processes has been associated in the past with incidents involving the transmission of infectious agents, principally viruses (1). Thus, virological evaluation of animal cell substrates for use in the manufacture of biologicals is essential to ensure the safety of products for pharmaceutical use.
Affiliation(s): (2) Q-One Biotech Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Book Title: Animal Cell Biotechnology: Methods and Protocols
Series: Methods in Biotechnology | Volume: 8 | Pub. Date: Feb-22-1999 | Page Range: 23-36 | DOI: 10.1385/0-89603-547-6:23
