Dr Robert H. Silverman: XMRV is contamination

Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in XMRV patient-derived integration sites reveals contamination from cell lines acutely infected by XMRV

  Alice Rusmevichientong1, Jaydip Das Gupta2, Petra S. Elias1, Robert H. Silverman2, and Samson A. Chow1,*:

 1 Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, and UCLA AIDS Institute, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095 2 Department of Cancer Biology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio 44195 *

Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, UCLA School of Medicine, CHS 23-133, 605 Charles E. Young Dr. South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. Tel: (310) 825-9600. Fax: (310) 825-6267.
E-mail: schow@mednet.ucla.edu 

ABSTRACT We analyzed xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) integration site sequences previously identified from human prostate tissues for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to discriminate between patient and potential cell line sources of the proviruses. The SNPs of two integration sites were identical to those in cell lines but not the patients, whereas the data on the remaining 12 integration sites were inconclusive. Our results provide direct evidence for contamination during analysis of XMRV integration sites.

See also: XMRV / HTLV integrate into precisely the same nucleotides in infected humans and in vitro cell lines