Chronic fatigue syndrome has frustrated sufferers and doctors alike because nobody knew what caused the disease or how best to treat it. That just changed.
Scientists say that a retrovirus may cause chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis)
Researchers found the virus, known as XMRV, in the blood of 68 out of 101 chronic fatigue syndrome patients. The same virus showed up in only 8 of 218 healthy people, they reported in the journal Science.
But lead scientist Judy Mikovits from the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada, said further blood tests revealed 95 per cent of the ME patients had antibodies to the virus. This indicated they had been infected with XMRV.
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Researchers found the virus, known as XMRV, in the blood of 68 out of 101 chronic fatigue syndrome patients. The same virus showed up in only 8 of 218 healthy people, they reported in the journal Science. But lead scientist Judy Mikovits from the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada, said further blood tests revealed 95 per cent of the ME patients had antibodies to the virus. This indicated they had been infected with XMRV.
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The XMRV virus is a retrovirus, like the HIV virus that causes AIDS. As with all viruses, a retrovirus copies its genetic code into the DNA of its host but uses RNA - a working form of DNA - instead of using DNA to do so.
Reports the New York Times
“I think this establishes what had always been considered a psychiatric disease as an infectious disease,” said Dr. Mikovits, who is research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, a nonprofit center created by the parents of a woman who has a severe case of the syndrome. Her co-authors include scientists from the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Mikovits said she and her colleagues were drawing up plans to test antiretroviral drugs — some of the same ones used to treat HIV infection — to see whether they could help patients with chronic fatigue. If the drugs work, that will help prove that the virus is causing the illness. She said patients and doctors should wait for the studies to be finished before trying the drugs.
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Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said the discovery was exciting and made sense.
“My first reaction is, ‘At last,’ ” Dr. Schaffner said. “In interacting with patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, you get the distinct impression that there’s got to be something there.”
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He added, “This is going to create an avalanche of subsequent studies.”