In a recent story published in The Independent scientists claim to have made a major breakthrough in understanding the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The researchers found that the syndrome, sometimes referred to as ME or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, has connections with an obscure retrovirus related to a group of viruses known to infect mice.
The virus, known as murine leukaemia (XMRV), was found in 68 of 101 patients in the United States who suffer with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This compared with 8 out of 218 ‘control’ patients who were selected randomly from around the US.
The author of the study, Judy Mikovits director of research at the Whittemore Peterson Institute at Reno, Nevada, has said that further blood tests show 95 per cent of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome have anti-bodies to the virus, indicating that they have been infected with XMRV. It has also been discovered that the virus can lie dormant within a patient’s DNA.
If these findings are replicated in other trials Dr. Mikovits believes that it could be possible to treat patients with anti-viral drugs. This is of course provided that XMRV is generally accepted as a cause. Currently the numbers tested are too small to draw a definite conclusion.
However, Simon Wessely, professor of psychological medicine at King’s College London, stated that “It’s spectacular, but needs replication. I hope that no one is thinking of prescribing anti-retrovirals on the basis of this study. It’s preliminary and there is no evidence to say this is relevant to the vast majority of people in the UK with the condition”.
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