Exciting News For My Fellow Fibromyalgia Sufferers!!!! | physicalwreck's Blog

• Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog

  By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com Guide to Fibromyalgia & CFS

Retrovirus Implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia Saturday October 10, 2009

IMPORTANT RESEARCH NEWS: In what they're calling a landmark finding, scientists from the Whittemore Peterson Institute announce they've discovered a retrovirus in the majority of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS). The study was recently published in the journal Science.

That study showed a virus called XMRV in the blood of 68 out of 101 ME/CFS patients, compared to just 8 of 218 healthy people. Since the paper was submitted for publication, however, researchers say they've further refined their testing methods and have now been able to identify the virus in 95% of those same blood samples from people with ME/CFS, and in similar percentages of those with fibromyalgia and atypical multiple sclerosis.

Researchers say this finding shows that the retrovirus is a contributing factor in these conditions. This is the first time XMRV has been isolated from the blood, and also to show that it can be transmitted between blood cells.

What is XMRV?

XMRV was originally discovered in prostate-cancer tissue of men who had a certain genetic immune-system defect. Researchers say they found a similar defect in people with ME/CFS and began looking for it in the banked blood samples.

XMRV is transmitted through bodily fluids, not the air. As a retrovirus, it's in the same class as HIV and HTLV-1, which are known to cause immune deficiencies.

What's Ahead?

• Researchers are continuing their work on XMRV and ME/CFS, including a blood test that would detect XMRV.
• They're now calling XMRV-related conditions, including ME/CFS, "X associated neuro-immune diseases" or XAND.
• They're securing funding to begin looking for existing drugs that can suppress XMRV and hope to follow that work closely with human trials.

For more information on this work, visit: The Whittemore Peterson Institute.