Prostate Study Negative – The latest XMRV prostate cancer study by a two groups of Japanese and UK researchers (Hue, Towers) failed to find XMRV – which might not be news except that this study used the same immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis that Dr. Singh used to find XMRV.
These researchers used Dr. Singh’s IHC test and one of their own. Comparing the two found that the two tests to be equivalent but the Singh test was positive in samples which were negative by PCR or other antibody tests. (All tests were equally proficient in picking artificially spiked samples) That was enough for them to conclude that the MLV’s they found were due to contamination. This is the second IHC study to be unable to validate Dr. Singh’s earlier findings
They also found evidence of MLV’s in a few patients but further mtDNA testing revealed them to be due to contamination.
‘Contamination’ Via….? – A Lancet article on XMRV – does the remarkable feat of bringing together the two XMRV camps by suggesting that they are both right; XMRV probably is a laboratory creation and the WPI did find it in their patients…..
Magiorkinis proposes that XMRV has infected humans – but not through human-human contact! Instead he believes that some sort of product, that was previously cultured in XMRV contaminated cell-lines, has been given to people with ME/CFS. This would explain how XMRV could be present in humans but still retain the kind of low genetic variability found in it’s cell line. Which ‘products’, however, he was referring to are however unclear.
If XMRV is the cause of CFS – then the products would have been provided when the person was relatively well and they wouldn’t necessarily be medical products; if XMRV is a bystander then medical products that introduced it after the person became ill would likely be high on the list of things to look for.