Sunday 8 January 2012

Gerwyn's concerns about the Lipkin Study

Gerwyn - ME advocate - has written below some key concerns about the Lipkin study. I think these are very interesting points which bear consideration, so am reproducing below:

"We all know that  a  mrv is only detectable by for a short time in the blood following innoculation thereafter it is readily found by PCR in lymphoid tissue notably spleen lymph nodes tonsilluar tissue lung tissue and intestines. We also know that for complex reasons the antibody response fades and also becomes undetectable.This is typical of the behaviour of many other gammaretroviruses. They infect B cells in the lymph nodes first and then spread to other secondary lymphoid tissues. They infect a class of B cell which ultimately resides in the peritoneal cavity..They also infect recycling CD20 B cells because those cells pass through the spleen and a very low percentage of them will become infected.The trouble is that these cells quite literally burst after a few  days. Memory B cells are also a target for infection but after a short time in the blood they home in on lymphoid tissues again. The basic message is that  multiple samples at multiple time points need to be taken from an infected patient to have any sort of chance of detecting a MRV in  blood samples.The lipkin study involves  samples taken from a patient on the same day.

 We also know that the people have been"trying" to find a MRV in people with ME have set their tests to dectect a synthetic clone which does not exist in nature.Obviously they have no chance of detecting  a real MRV in infected patients.They are going to be using this method again in the Lipkin study. Lipkin knows that XMRV does not exist in nature so 75% of the researchers will be using tests which have no chance of working.This will leave Dr Mikovits and Dr Ruscetti attempting to  detect a mrv in blood samples taken from chronically tired people on the same day!!.They are both brilliant scientists but contrary to their detractors views there is no evidence that they have magical powers!!Even if  by some incredible feat of ingenuity they are able to detect some virus in some people the difference between the number of ME positives and the numbers of CONTACT controlls is certain to be obscured. Either way we lose. Excellent design for governments and corporate interests but a dire design for people with ME."

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