Spinal Fluid Study Negative for XMRV and other Pathogens – A couple of weeks ago a Schutzer study found abnormal levels of proteins in the spinal fluid of people with ME/CFS but this NIH funded study found no evidence of either XMRV or common pathogens in the spinal fluid of people with ME/CFS. Dr. Schutzer stated ““This latest study was not designed to address the ongoing controversy over possible XMRV in the blood,” said Schutzer. “It was specifically designed to survey the central nervous system for XMRV and, if found, other viruses.”
Dr. Schutzer is known for his cutting edge spinal fluid techniques and his work on Lyme disease. His co-author, Dr. Natelson has been active in ME/CFS research for many years. This has been kind of an odd study because the results have been released twice now – but the study is still not found on PubMed. It is, however, available on the Annals of Neurology website.
XMRV in the NIH SOK Workshop – the Workshop begins tomorrow and presentations on XMRV along with EBV and enteroviruses will be given. The two XMRV presentations will be given by an odd couple indeed; Dr. Mikovits talk on “XMRV and Related MLV’s” on 10:15 am EST will be directly followed by Dr. Coffin’s talk on “Endogenous Retroviral Origin of XMRV and related MLV sequences”. Neither of them disagree about XMRV being a real virus but they will certainly disagree on whether XMRV has infected humans or not. Dr. Mikovits recent point about the WPI’s samples of XMRV bearing a ‘signature’ of human infection is a very intriguing one and hopefully we’ll hear more about this. The most interesting part of the talks may very well be Q & A session at the end. Harvey Alter will be one of the moderators.