Japanese patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are negative for known retrovirus infections.
Although chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is known to be the syndrome that begins with an acute flu-like illness that may be due to the exposure to an infectious agent, there has been no convincing evidence on the causative agents. Recently, human T-lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II)-like virus has been reported to be associated with the CFS by using HTLV Western blot analysis and polymerase chain reaction. However, some investigators could not detect HTLV-II by indirect immunofluorescence analysis. Lately, CFS patients have been reported in Japan. We detected all 30 tested patients with CFS were seronegative for HTLV-II, HTLV-I and HIV by specific peptide ELISA and Western blot. Further, PCR analysis was negative for HTLV-II and retrovirus was not detected by coculture method with patients' PBMC. Thus, known human retrovirus infections do not cause a CFS in Japan.
Honda
M
M
Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Health, Tokyo, Japan.
Kitamura
K
K
Nakasone
T
T
Fukushima
Y
Y
Matsuda
S
S
Nishioka
K
K
Matsuda
J
J
Hashimoto
N
N
Yamazaki
S
S
D015153:Blotting, Western; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000382:microbiology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000382:microbiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase