Wednesday 18 May 2011

By Vincent C Lombardi, Judith A Mikovits, et al.

Source: In Vivo, 25:307-314, 2011 Click here for the full text.

Abstract

Background

The recent identification of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) in the blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) establishes that a retrovirus may play a role in the pathology in this disease.

Knowledge of the immune response might lead to a better understanding of the role XMRV plays in this syndrome. Our objective was to investigate the cytokine and chemokine response in XMRV-associated CFS.

Materials and Methods: Using Luminex multi-analyte profiling technology, we measured cytokine and chemokine values in the plasma of XMRV-infected CFS patients and compared these data to those of healthy controls. Analysis was performed using the Gene Expression Pattern Analysis Suite and the Random Forest tree classification algorithm.

Results

This study identifies a signature of 10 cytokines and chemokines which correctly identifies XMRV/CFS patients with 93% specificity and 96% sensitivity.

Conclusion

These data show, for the first time, an immunological pattern associated with XMRV/CFS.

Full Citation: In Vivo, 25;307-314 (2011). Lombardi VC, Hagen KS, Hunter KW, Diamond JW, Smith-Gagen J, Yang W, Mikovits JA. Whittemore Peterson Institute, University of Nevada; Triad Medical Center; Nevada Center for Health Statistics and Informatics, University of Nevada; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Microbiology and Immunology Applied Research Facility, Reno, Nevada, USA.    

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