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Feb. 5, 2010
Dr. Judy Mikovitz, director of research at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute in Reno,
Nevada, and one of the scientists behind the XMRV discovery, gave an in-depth lecture on
Jan. 22, 2010. She talked about XMRV and its implications for CFS, other neuroimmune
diseases, and possibly XMRV-related cancers. She covered a wealth of information over 2.5
hours. Below are some of the highlights.
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Studies of XMRV in Families
Researchers are looking at families with certain types of cancer and multiple types of
neuroimmune disease (i.e., autism, fibromyalgia, CFS) and finding XMRV infections. In
families with one person who has CFS, sometimes everyone else can be infected yet not
sick. Some of these healthy family members appear to have high levels of antibodies to
XMRV, which could help researchers develop treatments.
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Disease Onset
Dr. Mikovitz believes that people with CFS may have carried the retrovirus for years
without symptoms. Then, a series of small events that weaken the immune system make the
body unable to handle the XMRV and other infectious agents that aren't a problem for
healthy people (Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 6, Lyme disease, etc.) She said,
"Here you've got your immune system working well and the virus and the immune system are
coexisting just fine and then some other other bug, whether it be Lyme, a flu, anything,
gets you ... and then you've just tipped the scale to where your immune system can't
handle [XMRV] or anything, and everyday you're seeing new infections."
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Diagnostic Tests
In the published XMRV study and post-study work, researchers used multiple tests to
uncover the retrovirus. Not all of those methods are being used in commercially available
tests, so Dr. Mikovitz says about 60% of tests could result in a false negative. However,
she says positive tests are reliable.
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Treatment for XMRV-Positive People
While it's not advisable to take highly toxic anti-retrovirals without tests confirming
effectiveness, she says some available therapies may help, including: immune modulators;
anti-inflammatories , because inflammation activates XMRV; things that improve natural
killer cell function; medications that help level progesterone levels, because
progesterone up-regulates XMRV in lab tests; avoiding stress.
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Treating Co-Infections
Once we do have proven treatments for XMRV, Dr. Mikovitz says it will still be important
to treat co-infections. She also says we need research on people with both XMRV and common
co-infections to see what's different in each group.
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Early Intervention
Dr. Mikovitz says it appears that early infection (say, in children) can lead to more
severe disease later on. She stresses that, as with HIV, early detection and intervention
are important to keep viral loads from getting high. She hopes better diagnostic tests
will enable us, down the road, to do away with the 6 months of illness required for
diagnosing CFS.
Dr. Mikovitz emphasized how little we know for certain about XMRV. The CFS community has
been here before - hoping that an infectious agent will prove to be "the" culprit behind
their illness - but a key difference this time is the amount of interest it's generated in
researchers worldwide. We should expect to see more XMRV news from the Whittemore Peterson
Institute, drug companies, and other researchers in the next few years.
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