Anti-virals may be useful in treating chronic fatigue, suggests study

Some of the currently used anti-viral drugs may perhaps be useful to treat chronic fatigue syndrome as more evidence come up establishing a viral link to the disease.

A new U.S. government study has shown that as much as 90 percent of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome have signs of infection with XMRV, XMRV is a group of viruses that cause leukemia in mice.

“There was a dramatic association with chronic fatigue syndrome, but that’s all it is,” said Harvey Alter, senior author and chief of clinical studies of the department of transfusion medicine at the National Institutes of Health. “We have to emphasize we have not proven causality,” he added while publishing the study in in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

In an accompanying editorial, French researchers suggested that some of the currently available antiviral drugs such as Merck & Co.’s Isentress and Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Viread, should be tested for chronic fatigue syndrome.

A earlier study published in the journal Science had found a link between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome.

XMRV or xenotropic murine leukemia virus is belonging to rotavirus family. The study found XMRV in the blood of 68 out of 101 chronic fatigue syndrome patients.While XMRV was present in only 8 of 218 healthy people.

The Science XMRV study was based on blood samples from a national repository at the Whittemore Peterson Institute collected from doctors in cities where outbreaks of chronic-fatigue syndrome occurred during the 1980s and ’90s.

XMRV has also been associated with other diseases like autism, atypical multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.

XMRV, once infected, permanently settles in the body – a characterestic of viruses belonging to retrovirus family such as HIV, the one causing AIDS.

XMRV, however, doesn’t appear to replicate as quickly as HIV does. XMRV’s transmission route is also largely unknown to researchers.It is important to note that retroviruses, like XMRV, are not airborne. Some scientists believe that XMRV is transmitted through blood or bodily fluids.

Chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS,a rather mysterious disorder, leads to incapacitating fatigue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers can also experience memory loss, problems with concentration, joint and muscle pain, headaches, tender lymph nodes and sore throats.

Chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms can last at least six months. Chronic fatigue syndrome is estimated to affect 17 million people worldwide.

Currently, there is no treatment available for chronic fatigue syndrome besides cognitive behavioral therapy to help patients cope with the disorder’s crippling effects.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd makes a cancer drug called Velcade that is a proteasome inhibitor. But, Takeda has never said velcade is targetting against XMRV.

Previously a number of viruses, including herpesviruses, enteroviruses and Epstein-Barr virus  have been suggested as triggers for chronic fatigue syndrome. But these have only been found in a small minority of people with the disorder.

Retroviruses like XMRV have also been shown to activate a number of other latent viruses. This could explain why so many different viruses, such as Epstein-Barr virus, which was causally linked to Burkitt’s and other lymphomas in the 1970s, have been associated with chronic fatigue syndrome.