Of Mice and Men: On the Origin of XMRV.

ABSTRACT: The novel human retrovirus xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is arguably the most controversial virus of this moment. After its original discovery in prostate cancer tissue from North American patients, it was subsequently detected in individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome from the same continent. However, most other research groups, mainly from Europe, reported negative results. The positive results could possibly be attributed to contamination with mouse products in a number of cases, as XMRV is nearly identical in nucleotide sequence to endogenous retroviruses in the mouse genome. But the detection of integrated XMRV proviruses in prostate cancer tissue proves it to be a genuine virus that replicates in human cells, leaving the question: how did XMRV enter the hum

SUBMITTER: van der Kuyl AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3109487 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature