Dr. Deckoff Jones Opens Family Survey – Large scale surveys of illness in CFS families , for some reason, have not been done and yet they could open up a wealth of information about what ME/CFS is by showing what susceptibilities exist in the families. We did a poll on Phoenix Rising and was surprised by how prevalent ME/CFS and other mysterious fatiguing illnesses were in families…
Now Dr. Deckoff Jones, in collaboration with another doctor, is doing a more comprehensive survey…. Check it out here – and participate.
The Singh Study is done and is presumably being submitted to Journals.Dr. Singh, of course, was studying XMRV in prostate cancer prior to the XMRV finding in the Science paper. In her XMRV patent Dr. Singh noted that she’d found evidence of XMRV via PCR and antibodies. She is also employing immunohistochemistry tests – which she believes are more sensitive than the other methods. A couple of studies have recently come out which questioned her immunohistochemistry results.
Dr. Singh, a careful and well respected researcher, has been working on this study for a long time now. She’s using an impeccably documented cohort and employing as many tests as she can ..in short it’s an important study – one of the real biggies remaining. If she finds XMRV in her patients that will really mean something. Of course, if she can’t that will really mean something as well.
- Check out more information on the Singh study in “The Best XMRV Study Underway? Dr. Singh Talks!”
With the completion (and hopefully quick publication) of the Singh study one wonders what is happening with another of the biggies started last year – the GSK/CFIDS Association study….
University of Alberta Connection – the U of A in Canada has become something of a hotspot for CFS research with Houghton, Mason and Broderick (and perhaps others) all based there. If I remembered correctly both Dr. Mikovits and Dr. Alter mentioned a Dr. Mason when we talked at the Workshop. I believe it’s Dr. Mason’s lab that is looking for DNA integration in Dr. Alter’s MLV sequences and this would make sense as Mason was a co-author of the 2010 paper “Mouse retroviruses and chronic fatigue syndrom: Does X or P Mark the Spot?. In any case, the Univ of Alberta – which Dr. Mikovits recently spoke at on how to find XMRV – will surely have it’s say on XMRV before everything is said and done.
NIH State of the Knowledge Workshop is up online and in good video as well. Check it out here:
Day 1: https://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?16575
Day 2: https://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?16571
Agenda: https://www.infinityconferences.com/…557/Agenda.htm
Dr. Bell will give his summary of the NIH Workshop and no doubt provide some of his thoughts on XMRV on Saturday in Mass.
Dr. Peterson will be speaking in Calgary at the end of the month. Check that out here
The Schutzer/Natelson XMRV Spinal Fluid Study – this study, which has got some attention in the scientific media, was the subject of quite an exchange between Dr Mikovits and Dr. Natelson with Dr. Mikovits stating it was invalid and Dr Natelson throwing up his arms and stating he can’t do anything right! (At the break they had a nice long chat about it).
There’s nothing new in this article about XMRV but there is some nice information about spinal fluid and what it does and what it contains. We should be clear, however, that the absence of a pathogen in the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) does not mean that that pathogen is not in the brain as pathogens in the brain often do not always show up in the CSF.
The opposite does not appear to be true, however, if they had found XMRV in the spinal fluid – that would have been an indication it was in the brain as well. Basically all a study like this can do is document a pathogen if it is there…but it cannot say that the pathogen is not there.
