by admin on November 25, 2011
Pt. IA: XMRV: the Big Test – the Blood Working Study (Taken From the Ottawa Conference/CFIDS Association Webinar)
The Blood Working Group was a large group (25) made of federal officials from various agencies (CDC, NIH, FDA), the Red Cross, several laboratories including the WP, several Universities and put together just a month after the XMRV Science paper published in Oct 2009.
The CAA brought together three members of the BWG – none of whom were employed by the federal government to explain the results in their latest webinar. They were Graham Simmons, PhD of Blood Systems Research Institute, Michael Busch, MD, PhD of Blood Systems Research Institute, Steven Kleinman, BSc, MD of University of British Columbia
The culmination of the BWG’s efforts was a blinded test involving 9 well known labs including the WPI, Abbot, two FDA labs (including Lo/Alter), the NCI Ruscetti lab and Gen-Probe that examined 15 CFS patients from the WPI and Lo/Alter and X controls.… Read More
by admin on November 26, 2011
In Part II of the XMRV section of the conference we look at the Coffin/Mikovits presentations, Hanson’s update on her XMRV work and look at the recent XMRV research findings.
The pMLVs Strike Out – Hanson Disavows Former Results
“The sensitivity of the PCR assays used requires extreme caution in interpreting results
Dr. Maureen Hanson”
Background – Dr. Hanson’s was one of two labs (Lo/Alter) to find not XMRV but closely related murine leukemia viruses called pMLV’s, in CFS blood samples. Dr. Mikovits heralded the findings as proof that a family of murine leukemia viruses were present in chronic fatigue syndrome but the their similarity to endogenous retroviruses raised a red flag.… Read More
by admin on December 27, 2011
Ottawa Conference Reports III: The Most Expensive Disorder: Clauw on the Fibromyalgia and CFS-ness of Chronic Illness
Clauw is a fascinating figure. Clauw comes from the fibromyalgia side but if you don’t have FM don’t think there’s not something here for you as well. Clauw believes a very large group of people with chronic illnesses suffer from an undiagnosed and untreated FM/CFS-like illness and he’s not alone. The creation of a high-level working group at the NIH composed of FM, IBS, interstitial cytisus, CFS and other researchers indicates considerable cross-fertilization is occurring between these formerly separate disciplines and this is good news. While Clauw is coming from the pain side you may be surprised at the connections you find.… Read More
by admin on December 28, 2011
Montoya Calls for New Research Focus
The Immune System! The ever-present, ever complex immune system – a place of so many hopes in CFS and such a tough nut to crack. In his opening address for the Infectious Pathogens section Dr. Montoya pointed out how inconsistent study results have made it difficult to get a handle on what’s going on. The natural killer cell dysfunction findings are solid and there’s a good deal of evidence for an inhibited Th1 and a dominant Th2 response but inconsistent results across major parts of the immune system (T-cells, tumor necrosis factor (TNF-a), IgG levels, IFN-y) have made it difficult to understand the role the immune system plays.… Read More
by admin on March 16, 2012
Many researchers think the problems in the brain or central nervous system probably play a key role in ME/CFS. Some of the most interesting research in the past couple of years has focused on the brain and the Ottawa conference was no exception.
At the conference we saw research findings begin to focus on specific areas of the brain, a spinal fluid study suggesting a brain injury is leaking proteins into the spinal fluid, a nasal study demonstrating more whacky autonomic nervous system results and a paper suggest that for some patients, it may all be in the nose……
PRESENTATIONS
The Seat of Fatigue in the Brain Identified?… Read More
