Lack of Evidence for Infection with Known Human and Animal Retroviruses in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract

We investigated 21 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who were identified through the surveillance system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta for the presence of several human and animal retroviruses. In addition, we evaluated 21 CDC employee controls matched with the patients for age (+/- 5 years), gender, and race. The viruses tested included human T-lymphotropic viruses types I and II; human spuma retrovirus; simian T-lymphotropic virus type I; simian retroviruses types 1, 2, and 3; bovine leukemia virus; feline leukemia virus; and gibbon ape leukemia virus. Samples of peripheral blood lymphocytes and leukocytes from patients and controls were analyzed in a blinded fashion for retroviral sequences; polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification assays and Southern blot hybridization to 32P-labeled internal oligoprobes were used. All PCR assays were optimized for maximal sensitivity on respective infected cell lines or plasmids, and sensitivity controls were included in each experiment. All samples from patients and controls were negative for the tested retroviral sequences. Our data indicate that none of these retroviruses plays an etiologic role or is a cofactor in the chronic fatigue syndrome illnesses of our study population.

Genetic evaluation of AMPD1, CPT2, and PGYM metabolic enzymes in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

“…However, this is unlikely to reflect the real situation due to the small number of subjects reporting alternative trigger factors. Despite a number of publications showing that viral infections only explain a small proportion of CFS cases (Gold et al, 1990;Heneine et al, 1994;Mawle et al, 1995), we found that the proportion of patients reporting viral infection as a trigger factor (76%) was high. This suggested a possible relationship between carnitine deficiency and infections (Mintz, 1995;Famularo et al, 2004).…”

Identification of novel expressed sequences, up‐regulated in the leucocytes of chronic fatigue syndrome patients

“…This is especially interesting since there is some evidence for retroviral infection in the aetiology of CFS [35]. However, since PCR screens for known retroviruses have produced negative results, it would have to be a hitherto unknown virus [36, 37]. For the remaining known genes, over expression of MAD1L1 could not be confirmed by TAQman and has most likely been cloned as a false positive (Fig.…”

A status report on chronic fatigue syndrome.

“…Reports on the possibility of the illness being caused by chronic infection by other agents, including enteroviruses (10), human herpesvirus 6 (11), Mycoplasma (12), retroviruses (13), Borna disease virus (14), parvovirus B19 (15), and "stealth" viruses (16), continue to appear, but confirmation and replication are lacking (17)(18)(19)(20). Infection can certainly trigger the onset of CFS, and patients reporting a sudden, virallike onset to their illness report this occurring in winter months (21).…”