Cargando…
XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable
A few years ago, a highly significant association between the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a complex debilitating disease of poorly understood etiology and no definite treatment, was reported in Science, raisin...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5439170/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28589117 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00108 |
_version_ | 1783237895758282752 |
---|---|
author | Panelli, Simona Lorusso, Lorenzo Balestrieri, Alessandro Lupo, Giuseppe Capelli, Enrica |
author_facet | Panelli, Simona Lorusso, Lorenzo Balestrieri, Alessandro Lupo, Giuseppe Capelli, Enrica |
author_sort | Panelli, Simona |
collection | PubMed |
description | A few years ago, a highly significant association between the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a complex debilitating disease of poorly understood etiology and no definite treatment, was reported in Science, raising concern for public welfare. Successively, the failure to reproduce these findings, and the suspect that the diagnostic PCR was vitiated by laboratory contaminations, led to the retraction of the paper. Notwithstanding, XMRV continued to be the subject of researches and public debates. Occasional positivity in humans was also detected recently, even if the data always appeared elusive and non-reproducible. In this study, we discuss the current status of this controversial association and propose that a major role in the unreliability of the results was played by the XMRV genomic composition in itself. In this regard, we present bioinformatic analyses that show: (i) aspecific, spurious annealings of the available primers in multiple homologous sites of the human genome; (ii) strict homologies between whole XMRV genome and interspersed repetitive elements widespread in mammalian genomes. To further detail this scenario, we screen several human and mammalian samples by using both published and newly designed primers. The experimental data confirm that available primers are far from being selective and specific. In conclusion, the occurrence of highly conserved, repeated DNA sequences in the XMRV genome deeply undermines the reliability of diagnostic PCRs by leading to artifactual and spurious amplifications. Together with all the other evidences, this makes the association between the XMRV retrovirus and CFS totally unreliable. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5439170 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-54391702017-06-06 XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable Panelli, Simona Lorusso, Lorenzo Balestrieri, Alessandro Lupo, Giuseppe Capelli, Enrica Front Public Health Public Health A few years ago, a highly significant association between the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a complex debilitating disease of poorly understood etiology and no definite treatment, was reported in Science, raising concern for public welfare. Successively, the failure to reproduce these findings, and the suspect that the diagnostic PCR was vitiated by laboratory contaminations, led to the retraction of the paper. Notwithstanding, XMRV continued to be the subject of researches and public debates. Occasional positivity in humans was also detected recently, even if the data always appeared elusive and non-reproducible. In this study, we discuss the current status of this controversial association and propose that a major role in the unreliability of the results was played by the XMRV genomic composition in itself. In this regard, we present bioinformatic analyses that show: (i) aspecific, spurious annealings of the available primers in multiple homologous sites of the human genome; (ii) strict homologies between whole XMRV genome and interspersed repetitive elements widespread in mammalian genomes. To further detail this scenario, we screen several human and mammalian samples by using both published and newly designed primers. The experimental data confirm that available primers are far from being selective and specific. In conclusion, the occurrence of highly conserved, repeated DNA sequences in the XMRV genome deeply undermines the reliability of diagnostic PCRs by leading to artifactual and spurious amplifications. Together with all the other evidences, this makes the association between the XMRV retrovirus and CFS totally unreliable. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-05-22 /pmc/articles/PMC5439170/ /pubmed/28589117 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00108 Text en Copyright © 2017 Panelli, Lorusso, Balestrieri, Lupo and Capelli. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Panelli, Simona Lorusso, Lorenzo Balestrieri, Alessandro Lupo, Giuseppe Capelli, Enrica XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable |
title | XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable |
title_full | XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable |
title_fullStr | XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable |
title_full_unstemmed | XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable |
title_short | XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable |
title_sort | xmrv and public health: the retroviral genome is not a suitable template for diagnostic pcr, and its association with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome appears unreliable |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5439170/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28589117 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00108 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT panellisimona xmrvandpublichealththeretroviralgenomeisnotasuitabletemplatefordiagnosticpcranditsassociationwithmyalgicencephalomyelitischronicfatiguesyndromeappearsunreliable AT lorussolorenzo xmrvandpublichealththeretroviralgenomeisnotasuitabletemplatefordiagnosticpcranditsassociationwithmyalgicencephalomyelitischronicfatiguesyndromeappearsunreliable AT balestrierialessandro xmrvandpublichealththeretroviralgenomeisnotasuitabletemplatefordiagnosticpcranditsassociationwithmyalgicencephalomyelitischronicfatiguesyndromeappearsunreliable AT lupogiuseppe xmrvandpublichealththeretroviralgenomeisnotasuitabletemplatefordiagnosticpcranditsassociationwithmyalgicencephalomyelitischronicfatiguesyndromeappearsunreliable AT capellienrica xmrvandpublichealththeretroviralgenomeisnotasuitabletemplatefordiagnosticpcranditsassociationwithmyalgicencephalomyelitischronicfatiguesyndromeappearsunreliable |