The discovery of XMRV in 68% of people with chronic fatigue syndrome has raised questions for which we likely won't have answers for a long time. In the meantime, however, scientists do know certain things about XMRV and retroviruses in general.
Recently, Dr. Lucina Bateman and the CFIDS Association put on a webinar called "XMRV: Implications for CFS." It was a good review of what we've learned about XMRV and also had some great information about retroviruses. What really caught my attention was the portion about what retroviruses can do to the human body.
According to Dr. Bateman, retroviruses are known to cause a variety of blood-borne and neurological diseases, which certainly fits with the prevailing (non-psychosocial) model of chronic fatigue syndrome, and also fibromyalgia. Dr. Bateman listed symptoms that retroviruses can cause. This list comes directly from her slides, and many of them probably look familiar to you:
- Weakness
- Wasting
- Ataxia (imbalanced gait or walk)
- Arthritis
- Dementia
- Neuropathy (damage to nerves)
She also talked about how any condition that involves dysfunction, modulation or suppression of the immune system can change how our bodies deal with the infectious agents that are around us every day, allowing typically harmless ones to become dangerous.
You can see why scientists started looking for a retrovirus -- the more we learn, the more it seems likely.
Still, we do have to remember that XMRV research is in its preliminary stages and it's too early to say whether it causes chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or any other illness. We'll need a lot more research to figure out its role, and even more before we know how to treat or prevent it (if needed).
To see all of Dr. Bateman's presentation slides, follow this link:
For more information on XMRV and what the discovery could mean in terms of diagnosis, treatment, prevention and more, see:
Coming Soon: Dr. Judy Mikovitz's XMRV presentation.
Learn more or join the conversation!
NEWSLETTER | FORUM | BIO | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
Photo © Andersen Ross/Getty Images
A more refined test was done of the samples and the results were impressive- 95% accually showed to have the virus. Please see link: http://www.wpinstitute.org/xmrv/index.html
Guide Response: That’s true & it’s very exciting, but right now the scientific community is only talking about the 68% from the published study. Hopefully, as other researchers look for XMRV, they’ll have the same high rates as the post-publication tests from the WPI. ~Adrienne
As a veterinarian, I treat cats infected with retroviruses on a regular basis. I would be cautious about attributing the neurologic symptoms of fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue directly to the retrovirus infection. I can assure you from personal experience with both fibromyalgia and my feline patients that the clinical signs and progression of disease are not at all similar. I do, however, personally believe that fibromyalgia is a primary neurologic disease. When you look at it from that prospective and the parts of the brain that are affected, all the pieces in the puzzle start to fall into place. Until the medical profession (especially the neurologists) recognize this and start treating it as such, instead of shuffling us off into the grab bag of rheumatology, we’ll all continue to be looked at as hypochondriacs.
In the case of CFS most people have some kind of recovery all be it over a long period of time. If CFS is caused by a retrovirus surely the condition should be degenerate disorder like HIV?
It’s not accurate to say that “most” people have some kind of recovery — many people get much worse.
What MAY be happening in people who do get better is a gradual recovery of the immune system to the point that it’s able to keep the retrovirus in check. We know healthy people can carry XMRV, so one assumption is that only people with an existing defect or immune problem are susceptible to it. If someone’s immune system was gradually repaired, either through treatment or on its own, recovery could be possible. However, that person would still test positive for XMRV.
It’s also possible that the ME/CFS diagnosis is being applied incorrectly in many cases, or that it currently covers multiple illnesses or subgroups. For example, some doctors believe that Lyme-related ME/CFS is much harder to recover from than EBV or HHV6-related cases.