Department of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Several studies have implicated a recently discovered gammaretrovirus, XMRV (Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus), in chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer, though whether as causative agent or opportunistic infection is unclear. It has also been suggested that the virus can be found circulating amongst the general population. The discovery has been controversial, with conflicting results from attempts to reproduce the original studies.
We extracted peripheral blood DNA from a cohort of 540 HIV-1-positive patients (approximately 20% of whom have never been on anti-retroviral treatment) and determined the presence of XMRV and related viruses using TaqMan PCR. While we were able to amplify as few as 5 copies of positive control DNA, we did not find any positive samples in the patient cohort.
In view of these negative findings in this highly susceptible group, we conclude that it is unlikely that XMRV or related viruses are circulating at a significant level, if at all, in HIV-1-positive patients in London or in the general population.
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Gray ER, Garson JA, Breuer J, Edwards S, Kellam P, Pillay D, Towers GJ. Are you the author?
Reference: PLoS One. 2011 Mar 23;6(3):e18096.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018096
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21448291
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