Division of Virology, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.
Retrovirology. 2010 Feb 15;7:10. doi: 10.1186/1742-4690-7-10.
Detection of a retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV), has recently been reported in 67% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. We have studied a total of 170 samples from chronic fatigue syndrome patients from two UK cohorts and 395 controls for evidence of XMRV infection by looking either for the presence of viral nucleic acids using quantitative PCR (limit of detection <16 viral copies) or for the presence of serological responses using a virus neutralisation assay.
We have not identified XMRV DNA in any samples by PCR (0/299). Some serum samples showed XMRV neutralising activity (26/565) but only one of these positive sera came from a CFS patient. Most of the positive sera were also able to neutralise MLV particles pseudotyped with envelope proteins from other viruses, including vesicular stomatitis virus, indicating significant cross-reactivity in serological responses. Four positive samples were specific for XMRV.
No association between XMRV infection and CFS was observed in the samples tested, either by PCR or serological methodologies. The non-specific neutralisation observed in multiple serum samples suggests that it is unlikely that these responses were elicited by XMRV and highlights the danger of over-estimating XMRV frequency based on serological assays. In spite of this, we believe that the detection of neutralising activity that did not inhibit VSV-G pseudotyped MLV in at least four human serum samples indicates that XMRV infection may occur in the general population, although with currently uncertain outcomes.
最近有报道称，在 67%的慢性疲劳综合征患者中检测到了逆转录病毒、嗜性鼠白血病病毒相关病毒（XMRV）。我们对来自英国两个队列的 170 名慢性疲劳综合征患者和 395 名对照者的总共 170 份样本进行了研究，通过定量 PCR 寻找病毒核酸的存在（检测下限<16 个病毒拷贝）或通过病毒中和测定寻找血清学反应的存在来检测 XMRV 感染的证据。
我们通过 PCR 未在任何样本中检测到 XMRV DNA（0/299）。一些血清样本显示出 XMRV 中和活性（26/565），但这些阳性血清中只有一个来自 CFS 患者。大多数阳性血清也能中和用其他病毒的包膜蛋白假型化的 MLV 颗粒，包括水疱性口炎病毒，表明血清学反应中有显著的交叉反应性。4 个阳性样本对 XMRV 具有特异性。
在所测试的样本中，通过 PCR 或血清学方法均未观察到 XMRV 感染与 CFS 之间存在关联。在多个血清样本中观察到的非特异性中和表明，这些反应不太可能是由 XMRV 引起的，并且突出了基于血清学检测高估 XMRV 频率的危险。尽管如此，我们认为，在至少 4 个人类血清样本中检测到的中和活性未能抑制 VSV-G 假型化的 MLV 表明 XMRV 感染可能发生在一般人群中，尽管目前结果尚不确定。
