Prevalence of XMRV Nucleic Acid and Antibody in HIV-1-Infected Men and in Men at Risk for HIV-1 Infection

Abstract

Xenotropic MLV-Related Virus (XMRV) was recently reported to be associated with prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Infection was also reported in 3.7% of healthy individuals. These highly reported frequencies of infection prompted concerns about the possibility of a new, widespread retroviral epidemic. The Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) provides an opportunity to assess the prevalence of XMRV infection and its association with HIV-1 infection among men who have sex with men. Reliable detection of XMRV infection requires the application of multiple diagnostic methods, including detection of human antibodies to XMRV and detection of XMRV nucleic acid. We, therefore, tested 332 patient plasma and PBMC samples obtained from recent visits in a subset of patients in the MACS cohort for XMRV antibodies using Abbott prototype ARCHITECT chemiluminescent immunoassays (CMIAs) and for XMRV RNA and proviral DNA using a XMRV single-copy qPCR assay (X-SCA). Although 9 of 332 (2.7%) samples showed low positive reactivity against a single antigen in the CMIA, none of these samples or matched controls were positive for plasma XMRV RNA or PBMC XMRV DNA by X-SCA. Thus, we found no evidence of XMRV infection among men in the MACS regardless of HIV-1 serostatus.

Seroprevalence of xenotropic murine leukemia virus–related virus in normal and retrovirus‐infected blood donors

“…However, in this study, no XMRV antibodies were detected in the 100 HIV‐1–seropositive blood donors from Cameroon. Zero or low levels of seroreactivity have been reported in HIV‐1–infected Spanish subjects (0%, 0/149) and US multicenter AIDS cohort patients (0.9%, 3/332) 28 (M. Arredondo, J. Hackett Jr, F. de Bethencourt, A. Treviñ, D. Escudero, A. Collado, X. Qiu, P. Swanson, V. Soriano, C. Carmen de Mendoza, manuscript in preparation). These serologic results are consistent with several other studies that have failed to detect XMRV DNA or RNA in HIV‐1–infected patients from Europe, United States, and Africa 29‐33 .…”

In-Depth Investigation of Archival and Prospectively Collected Samples Reveals No Evidence for XMRV Infection in Prostate Cancer

“…Any sample that gave a signal equal to or greater than the cutoff value (Log N S/CO≥0.0) was repeated in duplicate, and samples with repeatedly reactive results were further analyzed by the ARCHITECT XMRV p30 CMIA for antibodies to capsid protein. Repeat reactivity (Log N S/CO≥0.0) to all three proteins is required to confirm a positive antibody finding [67] , [68] , [71] .…”

A survey on human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) coinfection in Tehran, Iran

“…[ 2 4 5 6 ] As some studies have found XMRV in up to 87% of patients and others have failed to detect XMRV infection either in the patient cohorts or in the general population, the correlation between XMRV and human diseases has remained controversial. [ 7 8 9 ]…”