PLoS ONE (Jan 2011)

No evidence for XMRV nucleic acids, infectious virus or anti-XMRV antibodies in Canadian patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

  • Imke Steffen,
  • D Lorne Tyrrell,
  • Eleanor Stein,
  • Leilani Montalvo,
  • Tzong-Hae Lee,
  • Yanchen Zhou,
  • Kai Lu,
  • William M Switzer,
  • Shaohua Tang,
  • Hongwei Jia,
  • Darren Hockman,
  • Deanna M Santer,
  • Michael Logan,
  • Amir Landi,
  • John Law,
  • Michael Houghton,
  • Graham Simmons

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027870
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 11
p. e27870

Abstract

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The gammaretroviruses xenotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV)-related virus (XMRV) and MLV have been reported to be more prevalent in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients than in healthy controls. Here, we report the complex analysis of whole blood and plasma samples from 58 CFS patients and 57 controls from Canada for the presence of XMRV/MLV nucleic acids, infectious virus, and XMRV/MLV-specific antibodies. Multiple techniques were employed, including nested and qRT-PCR, cell culture, and immunoblotting. We found no evidence of XMRV or MLV in humans and conclude that CFS is not associated with these gammaretroviruses.