STEALTH
VIRUSES
This article (and the one below it on Stealth Viruses and CFIDS)
was sent to me by a newsletter reader. - Dominie
From http://www.ccid.orgStealth Viruses
Explore
10:17-19,2001
John Martin, M.D. Ph.D.
Center for Complex Infectious
Diseases
What are Stealth Viruses?
Viruses are
submicroscopic infectious agents that replicate inside cells. Viral illnesses
are normally controlled by the body's immune system acting primarily through
white blood cells called lymphocytes. These cells recognize certain viral
proteins that provide the antigens targeted by specific lymphocytes, leading to
an anti-viral inflammatory response. Not all viral proteins, however, can
function as antigens for effective anti-viral immunity. Indeed, for many
viruses, only a very few proteins are involved in lymphocyte recognition of
virally infected cells. Loss of these critical antigenic proteins can allow a
virus to essentially go unrecognized by the cellular immune system. When such
viruses have managed to retain the capacity to damage cells, they can
potentially cause a persistent infection resulting in a prolonged illness. The
viral nature of such an illness is usually overlooked because of the absence of
overt inflammation.. Atypically-structured cell-damaging (cytopathic) viruses
were initially identified in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome and in
patients with more severe neurological and neuropsychiatric illnesses. The term
"stealth" was introduced to highlight their basic property of evading effective
immune recognition, and also because they had gone unrecognized by the medical
community.
Detection of Stealth
Viruses
Stealth-adapted viruses can be most readily detected
using specialized, semi-quantitative, viral culture methods developed and
refined over the last decade. Using these procedures, stealth viruses will
typically induce a characteristic vacuolating cytopathic effect (CPE) in
cultures of human and animal-derived cells. Stealth virus infected
cultures can be distinguished from cultures of conventional herpesviruses,
adenoviruses, enteroviruses and retroviruses, by the appearance and host range
of the CPE, and also by using selective immunological and molecular probe based
assays, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing
methods.
Cytopathic Effects
A common feature of
the CPE-induced, stealth adapted viruses is marked metabolic disruption. This is
expressed as lipid accumulation, cytoplasmic vacuolization, formation of
aberrant protein and lipoprotein inclusions, and abnormally shaped nuclei.
Comparable foamy vacuolating cellular changes with atypical inclusion-like
structures can be seen in detailed examination of brain and other tissues
obtained from stealth virus infected patients and from animals inoculated with
these viruses. Unlike infections caused by conventional cytopathic viruses, the
actual production of readily identifiable viral particles is uncommon.
Seemingly, the infected cells are metabolically impaired because various energy
and other resources are diverted towards an inefficient and unbalanced synthesis
of various virus coded components at the expense of normal cellular functions.
Severe defects in energy-generating metabolic pathways are also apparent from
the marked mitochondrial changes that are prominen
t in electron micrographs
of virus-infected cells.
Center for Complex Infections
Diseases
Both clinical- and research-based studies on
stealth-adapted viruses have been undertaken at the Center for Complex
Infectious Diseases in Rosemead, California. CCID is a non-profit organization
under the National Heritage Foundation dedicated to understanding the nature,
origin, disease associations, modes of transmission, methods of diagnosis and
responses to therapy of stealth virus infections, and to the dissemination such
information to the medical and lay communities. Information regarding CCID is
available from the internet at www.ccid.org. Additional information is
available from www.EmergingWorlds.com. The following
sections provide a brief overview of some of the ongoing research activities
being conducted at CCID.
DNA Sequencing Studies
A
stealth virus isolated from a patient with a chronic fatigue syndrome like
illness was originally noted to have limited DNA sequence homology to human
cytomegalovirus (CMV). As additional sequence data became available, it became
obvious that this virus was a derivative, not of human CMV, but rather of an
African green monkey simian CMV (SCMV). Until the beginning of last year, these
monkeys were routinely used to produce live poliovirus vaccine. Moreover,
although not widely revealed, a joint Food and Drug Administration/Industry
study in 1972 indicated that control kidney cell cultures from all 12 African
green monkeys tested grew out SCMV, and that most of these isolates were not
detectable using standard procedures.
Continued sequencing on the
SCMV-derived stealth-adapted virus has shown interesting changes compared to a
typical CMV. Of special note is the uneven representation of genes that encode
various viral components. As expected, the genes that code the proteins known to
provide major target antigens for anti-CMV cytotoxic T lymphocytes are either
absent or mutated. Other genes are overly represented, including genes that code
for various chemokines and for chemokine receptors. Interestingly, one of the
markedly amplified chemokine receptor coding genes found in the stealth virus
genome can also function as a receptor for HIV, suggesting a possible
potentiating role of stealth viruses in HIV infected patients.
One set
of amplified chemokine-coding genes detected in the stealth-adapted virus is of
cellular, rather than viral, origin. Cellular genes can apparently be
incorporated into stealth virus genomes, presumably during viral replication.
The particular chemokine-coding cellular gene identified within the prototype
SCMV-derived stealth virus was probably assimilated as a partially processed RNA
molecule since it lacks the normal introns present in cellular DNA. This implies
that stealth virus DNA replication is proceeding through RNA intermediates, and
that it may, therefore, be dependent upon reverse transcriptase, as could be
provided by an assimilated endogenous retroviruses. RNA to DNA replication is
much more prone to error than is DNA to DNA replication. This might explain
sequence variability between the three copies of the chemokine-coding
cell-derived gene that have so far been identified within the stealth
virus.
Chemokine receptor genes of both viral and cellular origins have
been implicated in the development of several types of malignancies. It is
somewhat worrisome, therefore, that the stealth adapted virus is apparently
employing this type of gene for its survival. On the other hand, many
therapeutic agents that appear to be of some benefit to stealth virus infected
patients are known to inhibit cheomkine production and receptor
activity.
Viteria
It has also been determined
that stealth viruses have the ability to acquire genetic sequences of bacterial
and even fungal origin. Normally, viruses that are infectious for human or
animal cells (eukaryotic cells) will not infect bacteria (prokaryotic cells).
Stealth viruses appear to have overcome this phylogenetic barrier. The term
"viteria" has been coined to define eukaryotic viruses that have acquired
bacteria-derived genetic sequences. The sources of the bacterial sequences
include microorganisms that are not known to grow intracellularly within
eukaryotic cells. This strongly suggests that stealth viruses become viteria by
infecting bacteria.. Judging from the bacterial sequences so far identified,
genes have been captured from a wide variety of both gram positive and gram
negative bacteria. The linear arrangements of many of the bacterial-derived
sequences are quite different from any of the known major bacteria, suggesting
that an active ongoing selection process may be oc
curring to assist in
stealth virus propagation within bacteria. Genetically empowered bacteria,
carrying potentially oncogenic stealth-adapted viruses, could become a far more
threatening biological weapons program then ever envisioned by military
planners.
Bacterial sequences incorporated within stealth-adapted viruses
may help explain positive findings in stealth virus infected patients in various
tests for known bacteria, including Borrelia burgdoferi (the cause of authentic
Lyme disease), mycoplasma (a suggested cause of CFS and Gulf war syndrome);
chlamydia (implicated in coronary artery disease and Alzheimer's disease), etc.
None of the commonly used assays for these bacteria actually detect cultured
organisms, but instead rely upon broadly reactive molecular and/or serological
testing that could as easily be explained by the presence of
viteria.
Clinical Conditions Associated with Stealth Virus
Infections
Stealth-adapted viruses have been recovered from the
blood, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, throat swabs, breast milk, brain biopsies and
tumor samples from patients with various neurological, psychiatric, auto-immune,
allergic and neoplastic diseases. Examples of neurological illnesses are autism,
attention deficit and behavioral disorders in children; depression,
schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, chronic
fatigue and fibromyalgia in adults; and neurodegenerative illnesses in the
elderly. It is now known that the stealth viruses can infect many organs, but
that the brain is especially prone to manifest the effects of even limited
localized cellular damage. The varying manifestations of a stealth virus
encephalopathy is probably heavily influenced by the timing of infection,
regions of the brain that are mostly involved, genetic predisposition to
particular symptoms and the additive pathology of any superimposed auto-immune
component triggered by the viral induced cellular damage. CCID's focus is away
from strict clinical categorization of stealth virus infected patients into
discrete neurological and neuropsychiatric illnesses. This viewpoint has been
supported by following individual patients over several years, and also by the
not uncommon occurrences of related, yet diverse, illnesses occurring among
other family members and even among household pets. Community-wide outbreaks of
stealth virus infections have also been observed with individuals showing
varying levels of severity and duration of illness. Neither the reporting of
otherwise unexplainable deaths, nor the apparent "dumbing" of a whole township,
as reflected in the excessive need for special education for its children,
appears to provide adequate Public Health motivation to confirm CCID's findings
of stealth-adapted viruses.
Cancer can now be added to the
list of potential stealth virus-associated diseases. Positive stealth virus
cultures have been seen in virtually all of the multiple myeloma patients
tested, and in several patients presenting with other types of tumors. A
previous history of a fatiguing illness and clinical indications of impairments
in normal brain functions are suggestive of an underlying stealth adapted virus
infection in a cancer patient. It will be interesting to determine the effect of
stealth-virus suppressive therapy in such patients.
Infection
Among Blood Donors
An indication of the probable prevalence of
infection among apparently healthy individuals has come from studies conducted
on student blood donors attending a college campus. Slightly less than 10% of
the units tested gave a positive result. As a requirement of the study, it was
not possible to determine the actual health status of these students. Nor were
efforts allowed to follow recipients of the stealth virus positive blood units.
Even if culture-positive individuals are presently asymptomatic, this would not
preclude their being at risk for subsequent development of a stealth-virus
associated illness. This concern is underscored by the apparent capacity of
stealth-adapted viruses to "capture, amplify and mutate" various additional
genes of viral, cellular and bacterial origins.
Role of Other
Infectious Agents in Chronic Illnesses
Much of the debate over a
potential infectious cause for many of the illnesses that are increasingly being
seen within our society has centered upon conventional microorganisms. Patient
support groups and their affiliating clinicians have championed alternative
explanations for these illnesses. Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6), human
herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), enteroviruses and parvoviruses feature among the viral
causes for these illnesses, while Borrelia burgdoferi, Mycoplasma incognitos and
Ehlichiosis are being promoted as the bacterial causes for a wide spectrum of
illnesses. As is the case for HHV-6 in CFS, HHV-8 in multiple myeloma,
enterovirus in ALS and Borrelia in chronic Lyme disease, when looked at
critically, the actual findings are generally inconsistent with a true
etiological relationship. None of these negative studies exclude the role
atypically structured microorganisms; indeed, if anything they strongly support
their presence. As alluded to above, stealth-adapted viruses can easily be
mistaken in diagnostic tests for conventional viral and bacterial
pathogens.
Additional complex associations between stealth adapted
viruses and conventional microorganisms may exist. For example, the lipid-laden
cells infected with a stealth virus appear especially favorable to the growth of
intracellular bacteria, including Borrelia, the causative agent of Lyme disease.
CCID has demonstrated positive stealth virus cultures in blood samples from over
90% of patients referred with a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease. Whether the
patients are actually infected with Borrelia remains unproven, but if so, their
growth may be dependent upon an accompanying stealth virus infection.
Synergistic growth patterns between stealth adapted viruses and the viruses
present in several live viral vaccine preparations, have also been
observed. The potential role of stealth virus encoded chemokine receptors
in the evolution and the present day expression of HIV, is also under
consideration.
Clinical Approach to the Diagnosis and Therapy of
Stealth Adapted Virus Infections (SAVI)
Diagnosis: A major
challenge in providing medical care for stealth virus infected patients is the
multiple and diverse clinical manifestations of the patients' illnesses.
Individual patients do not fit comfortably into a single medical discipline,
whether it is psychiatry, neurology, rheumatology, endocrinology, hematology, or
any other. Imprecise diagnostic labels, such as CFS, fibromyalgia, depression,
attention deficit, etc., and even the better defined diagnostic labels, such as
schizophrenia, autism, ALS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, etc., tend
to obscure the complex multi-system nature of the patients' illnesses. Another
difficulty is quantitating the severity of disease processes that can vary
widely over time, and can be influenced by such non-specific factors as stress,
environmental exposures to chemicals, placebo effects, etc.
Disordered brain function can be anticipated in many
stealth virus infected patients. This can be documented using a
detailed neurological examination, with a focus on what are sometimes referred
to as "soft" neurological signs. Ancillary, although expensive, tests such as
SPECT scans, quantitative EEG and formal neurocognitive evaluations, can help
substantiate a diagnosis of stealth adapted virus infection with encephalopathy.
Additional syndrome names can be applied depending on clinical and laboratory
findings. Tabulation of symptoms using a detailed questionnaire can be helpful
in identifying clinical problems and in assessing therapy related
improvements.
Therapy: Until the existence of stealth viruses is accepted
by Public Health authorities, there will be no approved standard of care in
providing anti-viral treatments. Several suggestions can be made, however, from
what is currently known about the prototype SCMV-derived stealth virus. Whether
these suggestions are relevant to atypical viruses cultured from other patients
remains to be tested. CCID is now reaching out to clinicians involved with the
care of stealth virus infected patients for assistance with these clinical
trials.
Basically, it seems appropriate to undertake efforts to suppress
stealth virus activation and at the same time to support cellular metabolism,
especially mitochondria function. The remarkable expansion of chemokine and
chemokine-receptor related genes within the prototype SCMV-derived
stealth-adapted virus support the potential use of agents that can down regulate
chemokine pathways. Fortunately, many of the widely used herbal and generally
non-toxic allopathic medicines are known to interfere with chemokine signaling.
It is probably more than a coincidence that many of the compounds have also been
reported to benefit at least a proportion of patients with CFS and related
illnesses. Ideally, patients receiving these relatively simple therapies
would be retested for stealth virus activity. If there were no apparent
reduction in stealth virus activity, and if the patient remained symptomatic,
one could more easily justify the use of potentially more toxic allopathic
medicines, incl
uding known anti herpesviral agents.
For patients
with major neurological, psychiatric, autoimmune or malignant diseases, the
stealth virus associated treatments will simply be an aside to the accepted
standard care of the patient's underlying illness. Once sufficient supportive
data are collected, it may be possible to proceed directly with anti-stealth
virus therapy as the primary treatment for these severe
disorders.
Request for Assistance with Clinical Therapeutic
Studies
In support of these studies, CCID has begun to work with
medical specialists treating major medical neurological, psychiatric,
rheumatological and neoplastic illnesses, and also with orthomolecular
clinicians experienced in the uses of alternative medicines. Stealth virus
culture activity will be serially determined and correlated with the use of
various therapeutic modalities and changes in clinical status. CCID can provide
copies of patient questionnaires and an appropriate informed consent form.
A database for integrating laboratory, clinical and pharmaceutical data, will be
established and will be assessable to all participating clinicians. The type of
program is urgently needed to address the major Public Health threat posed by
stealth-adapted viruses and viteria.
Additional information and copies of
various research publications on stealth viruses, requisition forms, etc, can be
viewed at www.ccid.org. Clinicians wishing to
participate in stealth virus research should contact CCID. Stealth virus testing
requires an Acid Citrate Dextrose (ACD) yellow-topped tube of whole blood. While
a $250.00 fee is required for an initial diagnostic assay, a subsequent test on
the patient during or following therapy will be at no charge. Blood samples
should be sent via Federal Express to CCID, accompanied by a physician request
for testing. CCID is located at 3328 Stevens Avenue, Rosemead, CA 91770. Ph.
(626) 572-7288, Fax (626) 572-9288, e-mail ccidlab@hotmail.com.
Stealth Virus
Application to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Please bear in
mind that this is a summary of Stealth Virus Research as conducted by Dr. John
Martin and Associates at the Center for Complex Infectious Diseases (CCID). This
is in layman's language to the extent possible. Any errors or omissions are the
fault of the S-VIRUS Group webmasters who wrote this document and should not be
attributed to Dr. Martin or the CCID.
Dr. Martin's Hypothesis is that the
disease known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also called Chronic Fatigue
Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) simply
refers to a loose grouping of certain symptoms that are part of a much wider
spectrum of the clinical manifestations of viral-induced organic brain
damage.
These viruses are termed "Stealth" because although they cause
significant cellular damage they do not typically evoke a strong anti-viral
inflammatory response. Nevertheless, an infected patient's immune system may be
chronically up-regulated or otherwise impaired due to it's constant search for
something it "feels" is there but cannot locate and destroy.
Stealth
viruses are best viewed as "derivatives" or as "down-sized" conventional
viruses. They include but are not limited to derivatives of human and animal
herpesviruses. The "stealth adaptation" consists primarily of the deletion of
the gene coding for the major antigenic components normally targeted by the
cellular immune system.
Stealth viruses do not grow as efficiently as
conventional viruses, but have a striking advantage over conventional viruses in
not having to confront the body's cellular immune defense mechanisms. They can
therefore create persistent ongoing infections despite an individual's intact or
even up-regulated immune system. This is different from a latent infection seen
with many human herpesviruses in which the virus is essentially inactive except
for brief periods of viral activation, rapidly controlled by the body's immune
mechanisms.
The presence of a stealth virus may be an explanation for the
unusual RNase-L enzymes found in CFS patients in recent research conducted by
Dr. Sudolnick at Temple University School of Medicine and by independent
European research.
The CCID's stealth virus research program got a recent
unexpected, if unfortunate, boost due to an outbreak of a CFS-like epidemic in
Mohave Valley, in the Kingman, Arizona, Needles, California, and Laughlin,
Nevada triangle. This particular strain was found to be contagious, but Dr.
Martin cautions that CFS should not be characterized as a "catastrophic
contagious epidemic" since it appears that patient succeptibility due to
genetic, environmental, or other factors plays a part in contracting
CFS.
Now that Dr. Martin and his associates have conclusively proven the
existence of stealth viruses, they are focusing research in the following
avenues:
Developing theraputic agents to inhibit stealth viruses (Epione
project)
Sequencing the RNA genomes from stealth virus isolates of severely
ill patients.
Improving methods for detecting and characterizing stealth
viral infections using tissue culture, molecular, and serological
techniques.
Associating stealth viral infection with specific neurological
and non-neurological diseases.
Testing for transactivation of SV40 and B19
parovirus by stealh viruses.
As alluded to in Item 3, this research has
applicability well beyond CFS. It could lead to major discoveries in alleviating
the symptoms of Fibromyalgia, autism, bipolar disorder, attention deficit
disorder, and even more conditions which may stem from stealth virus
infections.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical doctor. I
am a fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome survivor. The purpose of this website
is not to diagnose or cure any disease or malady, but is presented as food for
thought. This information cannot take the place of professional medical
advice. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness should come under the
direction of a physician. No guarantees are made regarding any of the
information in this website.
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