ArticlemBio2012
A multicenter blinded analysis indicates no association between chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and either xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus or polytropic murine leukemia virus.
Article in mBio, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human Endogenous Retroviruses in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Emerging Roles in Pathogenesis, Immunity, Biomarkers and Therapeutics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Reactivation of Latent Herpesviruses and a Faulty Antiviral Response may Contribute to Chronic Multi-Symptom and Multi-System Illnesses in U.S. Military Veterans.Journal of medical virology · 2025Article
- A multicenter virome analysis of blood, feces, and saliva in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.Journal of medical virology · 2023Article
- ME/CFS and Long COVID share similar symptoms and biological abnormalities: road map to the literature.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Review
- Examination of control asymptomatic cohorts reveals heightened anti-EBV and HHV-6 A/B dUTPase antibodies in the aging populations.Journal of medical virology · 2022Article
- Article
- Cross-sectional analysis of clinical aspects in patients with long-COVID and post-COVID syndrome.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Insights from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome may help unravel the pathogenesis of postacute COVID-19 syndrome.Trends in molecular medicine · 2021Review
- Fake Science: XMRV, COVID-19, and the Toxic Legacy of Dr. Judy Mikovits.AIDS research and human retroviruses · 2020Article
- Enteric Virome and Carcinogenesis in the Gut.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2020Review
- Plasma proteomic profiling suggests an association between antigen driven clonal B cell expansion and ME/CFS.PloS one · 2020Article
- If this is true, what does it imply? How end-user antibody validation facilitates insights into biology and disease.Asian journal of urology · 2019Review
- Chronic viral infections in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).Journal of translational medicine · 2018Review
- Insights into myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome phenotypes through comprehensive metabolomics.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The Human Virome: Implications for Clinical Practice in Transplantation Medicine.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2017Review
- Absence of Cytomegalovirus in Glioblastoma and Other High-grade Gliomas by Real-time PCR, Immunohistochemistry, andClinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2017Article
- Fecal metagenomic profiles in subgroups of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.Microbiome · 2017Article
- XMRV and Public Health: The Retroviral Genome Is Not a Suitable Template for Diagnostic PCR, and Its Association with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Appears Unreliable.Frontiers in public health · 2017Article
- A Role for the Intestinal Microbiota and Virome in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)?Journal of clinical medicine · 2016Review
- Efficacy of rintatolimod in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).Expert review of clinical pharmacology · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
25 authors at 11 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The disabling disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) has been linked in two independent studies to infection with xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and polytropic murine leukemia virus (pMLV). Although the associations were not confirmed in subsequent studies by other investigators, patients continue to question the consensus of the scientific community in rejecting the validity of the association. Here we report blinded analysis of peripheral blood from a rigorously characterized, geographically diverse population of 147 patients with CFS/ME and 146 healthy subjects by the investigators describing the original association. This analysis reveals no evidence of either XMRV or pMLV infection. IMPORTANCE Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis has an estimated prevalence of 42/10,000 in the United States, with annual direct medical costs of $7 billion. Here, the original investigators who found XMRV and pMLV (polytropic murine leukemia virus) in blood of subjects with this disorder report that this association is not confirmed in a blinded analysis of samples from rigorously characterized subjects. The increasing frequency with which molecular methods are used for pathogen discovery poses new challenges to public health and support of science. It is imperative that strategies be developed to rapidly and coherently address discoveries so that they can be carried forward for translation to clinical medicine or abandoned to focus resource investment more productively. Our study provides a paradigm for pathogen dediscovery that may be helpful to others working in this field.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.