In the News

DELAY IN RELEASE OF STUDY ON CFS PROMPTS OUTCRY

July 14, 2010

David Tuller of the Tuscaloosa News reported that researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated they needed to re-evaluate their data and have therefore delayed publication of a new study believed to provide evidence of a link between CFS and XMRV.  This already peer-reviewed study was to appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Federal officials stated the publication was delayed because the findings contradicted those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who had conducted their own study on CFS and XMRV and had found no connection.  The CDC study had initially been held up because of the discrepancies but was eventually published on July 1, 2010 in the journal of Retrovirology.

NIH refused to comment but Dr. Harvey Alter, an author of the unpublished study and an NIH infectious-disease expert stated "My colleagues and I are conducting additional experiments to ensure that the data are accurate and compete," adding "Our goal is not speed, but scientific accuracy."

FOOTNOTE BY THE NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK:
The value of research is defeated when it can be influenced and stopped from being published.

STATEMENT BY WPI REGARDING CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL XMRV STUDY:

• Whittemore Peterson Institute Statement regarding Centers for Disease Control XMRV Study Contrary to the WPI study published in Science in October, 2009, as well as studies done by
  others, including the NIH and FDA, Mr. William Switzer of the Centers for Disease Control reported that his research team was unable to detect XMRV in CFS patient samples. This negative finding is in
  contrast to the WPI study in which we detected XMRV in 67% of CFS patient samples.  To correctly replicate scientific studies it is imperative that researchers use the same methods and patient criteria to ensure accurate results. The methodology used by the CDC was not the same as that used in the WPI study nor was the patient selection criteria. In September 2009, WPI sent the CDC twenty confirmed positive samples and the appropriate methodology to help them develop a clinically validated test. However, this team chose not to do this. Until researchers use clinically validated tests to detect XMRV in patient samples, as WPI and their collaborators have successfully done, an accurate association of XMRV to any diseased population cannot be made. For this reason, WPI researchers and many others are currently validating more sensitive clinical assays to assist federal agencies in their search for the true prevalence of XMRV in the human population. WPI will continue its core mission to deliver answers to patients with neuro-immune diseases by supporting the development of accurate diagnostics and providing effective therapeutics and clinical care.
  
  

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•  Absence of Evidence of XMRV in CFS and Healthy Controls in U.S. Population - On July 1, 2010, the U.S. Centers fir Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported results from researchers and colleagues of two institutions in which they found no evidence of infection with xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related (XMRV) among patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and healthy controls in the United States.

The CDC led team tested archived blood specimens from CFS patients and healthy controls.  The blinded testing was performed at CDC and two other laboratories with negative results.  The CDC concluded that these data do not support an association between XMRV and CFS in their study population.  Their report was published in an open-access journal Retrovirology 2010, 7:57 (July 1, 2010) By William Switzer, Hongwei Jia, Oliver Hon, et al.  See http://www.retrovirology.com/content/7/1/57 for summary.

It can be seen in its entirety on Provisional at http://www.retrovirology.com/content/pdf/1742-4690-7-57.pdf

To evaluate a possible association with XMRV with CFS, the CDC tested blood specimens from 51 persons with CFS and 56 healthy persons and were from previous study groups of people who had taken part in population-based studies of CFS in Wichita, Kansas and in Georgia.  Patients in Georgia had been referred by physicians to a registry of fatiguing illness and had met the criteria of the 1994 International CFS Research Case Definition.

 

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