A study, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Retrovirology, calls into question the potential link described late last year by an American research team between the controversial xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Kate Bishop from the MRC National Institute for Medical Research worked with a team of researchers to test blood and serum samples from 170 CFS patients and 395 healthy controls, using quantitative PCR and a virus neutralization assay. She reported that she was unable to replicate the earlier findings. She did point out that CFS encompasses a range of diseases, and it is still possible that some of them might be associated with XMRV infection but that additional investigations in this area are needed.

The findings of this Retrovirology study are supported by results from a recently published work from Imperial College London that also found no proof that XMRV infection is associated with CFS.

Courtesy of Science Daily

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First Published Febuary 2010

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