The xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) has been recently linked to chronic fatigue syndrome in a US cohort in whom the virus was demonstrated in 67% patients vs 3.7% healthy controls. Albeit this finding was not substantiated by subsequent reports and eventually considered a laboratory contamination, the matter is still the object of intense debate and scrutiny in various cohorts of patients. In this work we examined well-clinically characterized Italian patients affected by chronic fatigue syndrome, and also fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, two chronic illnesses of basically unknown etiology which show quite a few symptoms in common with chronic fatigue syndrome. Although we used recently updated procedures and controls, the XMRV was not found in 65 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis, 55 with fibromyalgia, 25 with rheumatoid arthritis, nor in 25 healthy controls. These results add to the ever-growing number of surveys reporting the absence of XMRV in chronic fatigue syndrome patients and suggest that the virus is also absent in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.

Absence of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in italian patients affected by chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or rheumatoid arthritis

Maggi F;
2012-01-01

Abstract

The xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) has been recently linked to chronic fatigue syndrome in a US cohort in whom the virus was demonstrated in 67% patients vs 3.7% healthy controls. Albeit this finding was not substantiated by subsequent reports and eventually considered a laboratory contamination, the matter is still the object of intense debate and scrutiny in various cohorts of patients. In this work we examined well-clinically characterized Italian patients affected by chronic fatigue syndrome, and also fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, two chronic illnesses of basically unknown etiology which show quite a few symptoms in common with chronic fatigue syndrome. Although we used recently updated procedures and controls, the XMRV was not found in 65 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis, 55 with fibromyalgia, 25 with rheumatoid arthritis, nor in 25 healthy controls. These results add to the ever-growing number of surveys reporting the absence of XMRV in chronic fatigue syndrome patients and suggest that the virus is also absent in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.
2012
Maggi, F; Bazzichi, L; Sernissi, Francesca; Mazzetti, P; Lanini, L; Scarpellini, P; Consensi, Arianna; Giacomelli, C; Macera, L; Vatteroni, Ml; Bombardieri, Stefano; Pistello, Mauro
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11383/2102438
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 5
  • Scopus 10
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 9
social impact