Tracking Medical Research for Gulf War Veterans

Hot News Is Expected for Chronic Fatigue Sufferers

XMRV Findings More Expected

This is exciting news in the civilian world for Chronic Fatigue Sufferers that may very well lead to answers also for Gulf War Veterans who are ill with Gulf War Illnesses.

We have two researchers that are involved for the Gulf War Veterans, who also are active in the civilian world pushing for answers for CFS. These researchers include Dr Klimas and Dr Baraniuk. The following is the news on XMRV. If this research is published, I believe the highest priority will be for Gulf War Veterans to be tested and I feel assured that Dr Klimas and Dr Baraniuk will get that done from the gulf war veterans they have already seen.
I will push the VA and DOD to get on board rapidly to get this subgroup of CFS sufferers tested ie Gulf War Veterans. What is important is testing could progress rapidly if VA makes advance planning in this effort! And what is more exciting is that the researchers already feel there already exists drugs that could be treatment trials in very short order.

As a nurse officer that served in theater in the Gulf War, who is also ill, my push has always been find answers that will help us get our lives back! At least give us a better quality of life. I believe medical science and doctors can find the right tests and diagnose us and treat us. I just could not believe it would take us 20 years!

I was there as a nurse officer to care for each of you and I will not let up!

Keeping all updated and educating all is a goal. That includes all the veterans, all the legislators in DC, all the doctors, all the researchers.   Each veteran can help in this effort.  How?  Provide the information to your doctors!  Print out copies and give it freely.  Place it on your facebook pages, place it on websites, distribute it in email networks, provide it to your US Representative and US Senator.  Get the different organizations to help distribute the information in their news magazines and newsletters.  Get the information to your televison news programs, to your newspaper news reporters, and to talk radio hosts across the nation. 

So here is the latest on the XMRV news that I have gleamed from multiple sources.

Reno chronic fatigue findings confirmed by federal agency
By Lenita Powers • lpowers@rgj.com • August 17, 2010

 Two Reno scientists, who last year discovered a new infectious human retrovirus they linked to chronic fatigue syndrome, said Monday that their findings have been replicated and confirmed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Judy Mikovits, one of the lead researchers with the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, said the FDA’s review of their findings is scheduled to be published in September.
“There has been an issue over whether anybody could replicate our study, and it will not only confirm our findings but extend our findings, which is really exciting for us,” she said.
Mikovits said they also have new, unpublished data concerning the retrovirus, XMRV, that could lead to treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome.
“We have immune system profiles, and we can tell by the immune system how the XMRV is doing the damage,” she said. “So we could have a diagnostic test to follow clinical treatment and show that people’s immune systems go back to normal. That’s the latest data that’s really amazing. That’s what we’re after.”
That data will be published by the end of the year, probably in a clinical immunology journal, she said.
Lombardi said clinical trials could begin soon at the Whittemore Peterson Institute, which is relocating from its tiny laboratory on the University of Nevada, Reno campus to the university’s newly opened Center for Molecular Medicine.
“Actually, we already have been contacted by people who are sending us tests, perceiving that they may be asked to be part of the clinical trials,” he said.
“I think once the (FDA) paper comes out and once the controversy is put to rest, the pharmaceutical companies will realize that this is some very low-hanging fruit for them to make the next transition,” said Lombardi. “There are so many drugs that have been developed for HIV, and it’s a retrovirus. So there’s probably a ton of HIV drugs that they can go back and re-screen that could be used.”
There are three published drugs that work against XMRV, Mikovits said.
“We totally expect at least one clinical treatment trial before the end of the year,” she said. “That is our goal, and that’s what this new facility is for.”
http://www.rgj.com/article/20100817/NEWS/8170338/1321/news

FDA/NIH PAPER in PRESS

“The Alter paper is now in press, but I don’t know when it will go online and until then there will be a press embargo,” says Dr. Randy Schekman, editor of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where the FDA/NIH XMRV paper on ME/CFS patients had been accepted and then pulled by higher-ups in the department of Health and Human Services. The NIH’s Dr. Harvey Alter is the principal investigator of the FDA/NIH study and one of the discoverers of hepatitis C.

http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/2010/08/13/update-fdanih-paper-on-xmrv-chronic-fatigue-syndrome.htm

Update: FDA/NIH Paper on XMRV & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Friday August 13, 2010
XMRV NEWSBRIEF: The FDA and NIH’s much-awaited paper on XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome will reportedly be published soon, according to CFS Central blogger and investigative journalist Mindy Kitei. She quotes the editor of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as saying that the study has gone to press.

XMRV, Chronic Fatigue and prostate cancer
XMRV, Chronic Fatigue and prostate cancer
.submitted by Chris Carter on August 06, 2010 .Tags: chronic fatigue, Prostate cancer, XMRV .Source: polygenicpathways.blogspot.com .The XMRV retrovirus has been implicated in chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer. A homology search comparing retroviral with human proteins revealed short contiguous amino acid strings (typically 5-8 aa) matching human proteins whose dysfunction might be expected to cause fatigue, including mitochondrial proteins related to oxidative phosphorylation, glutamate receptors and their synaptic scaffolds, muscular acetylcholine receptor scaffolds and structural proteins, components of the immune system, and phosphatidylinositol signalling inter alia. Viral proteins are also homologous to members of the oestrogen, peroxisome proliferator, and CREB activated receptor networks, all of which are implicated in prostate cancer, and to a protein, SRCAP, that controls the expression of the prostate-specific antigen. These short matches are often predicted to be antigenic, and antibodies to XMRV proteins may target their human homologues. This is supported by the presence of autoantibodies to muscarinic receptors , vimentin and LAMINB1 (all XMRV homologues) in chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers.These data support a role for the viris in both conditions. http://www.microbeworld.org/index.php?option=com_jlibrary&view=article&id=4394