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Lack of evidence for infection with known human and animal retroviruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Heneine W, Woods TC, Sinha SD, Khan AS, Chapman LE, Schonberger LB, Folks TM.Lack of evidence for infection with known human and animal retroviruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 18 (Suppl 1), pages S121-S125, 1994.
Summary
This is one of several publications detailing efforts to use HTLV-II gag gene sequences as a marker for CFS. An article in the literature reported that polymerase chain reaction, a technique used to detect very small amounts of specific DNA (in this case bits of DNA sequence from the human T cell leukemia virus type II), could be used diagnostically for CFS. This report and others indicated that HTLV-II sequences are not detectable in CFS patients, and that the test does not distinguish CFS patients from healthy controls.
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.
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