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Chronic fatigue syndrome is not associated with expression of endogenous retroviral p15E.
Gelman IH, Unger ER, Mawle AC, Nisenbaum R, Reeves WC.Chronic fatigue syndrome is not associated with expression of endogenous retroviral p15E.
Mol Diag 5:155-156, 2000.
Summary
All people harbor endogenous retroviruses in an inactive or latent state. They can be activated in hosts with immune suppression. We performed this analysis to determine if the p15E endogenous retrovirus marker was more common in CFS patients than controls and could find no difference.
Abstract
The etiology of CFS remains unexplained. One hypothesis is that varying insults alter immune response through a common pathway. This response could permit reactivation of latent viruses, including the defective endogenous retroviruses present in the human genome. Abnormal expression of the p15E gene of endogenous retrovirus could be a marker for CFS as well as contribute to continuing immune dysfunction. We performed a blinded analysis of p15E expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes from subjects enrolled in the Atlanta CFS case-control study. The p15E assay was positive in 26 (50%) of 52 samples. No demographic or other subject characteristics were associated with detection of p15E. No significant difference was observed in detection of p15E in CFS cases (8/13, 61.5%) and controls (18/39, 46.2%; Fisher's exact test p = .52). Overall, distributions of current wellness scores were equivalent among p15E -positive and -negative subjects. There was no difference in median duration of illness among p15E-positive and -negative cases and no significant difference between p15 E detection in gradual (3/6, 50%), and sudden (5/7, 71.4%) onset cases. These results provide no support for the hypothesis that expression of endogenous retroviral p15E is associated with CFS.
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