The disease in which most people would relate to a sense of tiredness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS, is a disease that is accompanied by an intense feeling of fatigue that is not improved by rest as one would think. Individuals with such disease are characterized by their diminished activity level, weakness, muscle pain and a host of other physical and psychological impairments. Scientists have not been able to pinpoint a specific cause of CFS. However, a recent study was able to link a retrovirus that might be involved with CFS and has the potential to assist scientists in diagnosis of the condition.
It is currently estimated that 17 million people are affected by CFS, but that number could fluctuate due in part to the diagnosis methods physicians follow to diagnose the condition. Some scientists believe that if a specific virus was to be used as an indicator for CFS could potentially improve diagnosis and eventually lead to a possible breakthrough in finding treatments for the disease. A recent discovery by Mikovits’s scientific team showed that a gammaretrovirus XMRV has been linked to strong cases of prostate cancer. Intriguingly enough, the virus is similar to that of CFS in the changes that take place with the antiviral enzyme RNase L. This discovery opened up a doorway into using the similar virus as a possible indicator of CFS in affected patients. After much analysis, it was found that two-thirds of all CFS patients were positive for the virus. The question of how the viruses are transferred in CFS outbreaks was found to be via blood. The problem of how the virus is precisely related to CFS still remains unknown, due in part by the complexity of CFS which is thought to be a result of many diseases. As a result, the Mikovits team is currently working on a reverse transcriptase inhibitors which complete the need for a drug target and a marker. The team is optimistic about finding a simpler diagnostic method that could help physicians in pinpointing CFS efficiently and accurately. Current estimates to have such methods available are in less than six months.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chronic-fatigue-syndrome-retrovirus
http://www.cdc.gov/cfs
It is currently estimated that 17 million people are affected by CFS, but that number could fluctuate due in part to the diagnosis methods physicians follow to diagnose the condition. Some scientists believe that if a specific virus was to be used as an indicator for CFS could potentially improve diagnosis and eventually lead to a possible breakthrough in finding treatments for the disease. A recent discovery by Mikovits’s scientific team showed that a gammaretrovirus XMRV has been linked to strong cases of prostate cancer. Intriguingly enough, the virus is similar to that of CFS in the changes that take place with the antiviral enzyme RNase L. This discovery opened up a doorway into using the similar virus as a possible indicator of CFS in affected patients. After much analysis, it was found that two-thirds of all CFS patients were positive for the virus. The question of how the viruses are transferred in CFS outbreaks was found to be via blood. The problem of how the virus is precisely related to CFS still remains unknown, due in part by the complexity of CFS which is thought to be a result of many diseases. As a result, the Mikovits team is currently working on a reverse transcriptase inhibitors which complete the need for a drug target and a marker. The team is optimistic about finding a simpler diagnostic method that could help physicians in pinpointing CFS efficiently and accurately. Current estimates to have such methods available are in less than six months.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chronic-fatigue-syndrome-retrovirus
http://www.cdc.gov/cfs
