{"id":6793,"date":"2016-01-12T14:54:20","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T14:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=6793"},"modified":"2016-01-12T14:58:53","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T14:58:53","slug":"dr-ian-lipkin-says-3-5-years-to-solve-mecfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/dr-ian-lipkin-says-3-5-years-to-solve-mecfs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Ian Lipkin says 3-5 years to solve ME\/CFS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cort Johnson reports: Ian Lipkin: Three to Five Years* to Solve Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME\/CFS)<\/a>\u00a0 December 26, 2015<\/p>\n

Ian Lipkin flew to Lake Tahoe this December to fundraise for joint projects with Simmaron Research Foundation. In a talk covering his virus hunting career, the threat of pathogens to humanity, and his work with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS), he dropped a bombshell:\u00a0 he stated that he believes it\u2019s possible to solve ME\/CFS in three to five years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On that hopeful note, let\u2019s learn more about Dr. Lipkin, his work, and his collaborations with Simmaron.<\/p>\n

Dr. Peterson\u2019s Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lipkin\u2019s Columbia Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) has established close ties with the Simmaron Research Foundation. Only a couple of months before, his chief collaborator, Mady Hornig (and Simmaron Scientific Advisory Board member) had given a talk.\u00a0 Now Ian Lipkin was here.<\/p>\n

Tea-Time at Simmaron I: Mady Hornig on the \u201cPeterson Subsets\u201d, Immune Exhaustion and New Gut Findings In ME\/CFS<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Peterson started his introduction of Ian Lipkin by noting that he\u2019d known him since they crossed paths in the 1980\u2019s when Dr.\u00a0Peterson sent him patients suffering from HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n

Ian Lipkin was the first to isolate Borna disease virus. He identified the West Nile Virus, developed technologies to identify SARS and then hand carried 10,000 test kits to Beijing at the height of the outbreak. He most recently discovered a highly dangerous virus that recently jumped into humans called MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus).<\/p>\n

Lipkin has pioneered many technological breakthroughs in finding pathogens including the use of MassTag-PCR<\/a>, the GreeneChip Diagnostic, and High Throughput Sequencing. His latest breakthrough is the development of a new screening technique<\/a> that enhances researchers ability to find viruses 10,000 fold.<\/p>\n

Called the top virus hunter in the world, Ian Lipkin runs the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia<\/a>, and is the director of the Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery (CRDD) at the NIH. He also worked closely with Steven Soderbergh on his film Contagion.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ian Lipkin talks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who says brilliant scientists can\u2019t be a hoot to listen to as well?
\nIan Lipkin\u2019s presentation was both enlightening and at times hilarious. Exhibiting a wry sense of humor, Lipkin poked fun at himself and virtually everyone around him.<\/p>\n

The last time he was in Lake Tahoe, he said, was in 1984 and he hearkened back to the HIV\/AIDS patients Dr. Peterson sent him in the early 1980\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come to a fork in the road \u2013 take it!\u201d<\/p>\n

He stated the guiding principle in the search for pathogens could be summed up by the great Yogi Berra\u2019s adage \u201cWhen you come to a fork in the road \u2013 take it!\u201d.<\/p>\n

HIV\/AIDS was the beginning of many changes. Even after the medical community knew it was being passed in the blood it still took them 2\u00a01\/2 years to find it. Why did they know a pathogen was present?\u00a0 Because of the infectious nature of the spread of the disease and the cytokine abnormalities found.<\/p>\n

In a Discover interview<\/a>,\u00a0 Lipkin noted that he ran the first clinic in San Francisco that would treat HIV\/AIDS (then called GRID) patients with neurological problems. (Note the iconoclastic element to Lipkin that showed up early in his career: he was willing to see patients others wouldn\u2019t see. Check out Lipkin\u2019s fascinating story <\/a>of how HIV\/AIDS lead to him to study infectious diseases.)<\/p>\n

Lipkin then worked on a virus which demonstrated the effects a persistent viral infection can have on the central nervous system. The virus alters how nerve cells work but doesn\u2019t kill them.<\/p>\n

Next, in another story with possible overtones for chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS), he investigated patients who\u2019d come down with what appeared to be a mysterious psychiatric disorder. It took him two years but using a new method involving genetic cloning he uncovered the Borna disease virus. It was the first virus discovered using genetic means.<\/p>\n

The Borna virus discovery was a game-changer for pathogen community.
\nJump forward thirty years (after it took the medical community almost three years to find HIV) and viruses are being discovered using molecular means all the time. The Center for Infection and Immunity itself discovered 700 new viruses from 2009-2015.<\/p>\n

Lipkin was aware of and interested in ME\/CFS in the eighties but there was no money. In 1999 he and Britta Evangaard found no evidence of the Borna disease virus in ME\/CFS<\/a>. From there we jump forward to 2010 when NIH Director Francis Collins tasked Lipkin to determine if a retrovirus, XMRV, was present. XMRV turned out to be a laboratory artifact, and the paper was retracted \u2013 something that Lipkin said was not all that unusual in science. (He emphasized that he and Dr.
\nPeterson were very careful to put out studies that would stand the test of time.)<\/p>\n

The XMRV discovery tanked but proved to be a boon for ME\/CFS by heightening the attention around it. Lipkin had kept an eye on ME\/CFS for years and after being hired by the Chronic Fatigue Initiative to take it on, he was back in a big way.<\/p>\n

In the next portion of his talk he turned to viruses and humans.<\/p>\n

Viruses and Humans<\/strong><\/p>\n

How are most viruses getting into humans? From animals. After it\u2019s jump from primates to humans, HIV is, of course, the most familiar example, but viruses are also escaping from bats, birds, pigs, rodents, insects and even camels into humans.<\/p>\n

A sea change in the viral field occurred in 1999 when a mosquito-borne virus \u2013 the West Nile Virus \u2013 was so bold as to attack the residents of the New York. Lipkin shifted his work from the West to East coasts and ultimately identified the virus. As the outbreak spread, it got the attention of Senator Joesph Lieberman who sponsored the first big initiative to learn how viruses spread from animals to humans.\u00a0 Politicians, Lipkin said, can be very important allies.<\/p>\n

If viruses are going to get spread around the world, New York City may very well be the best place to do that. Twenty-one million passengers traveling to and from 72 countries pass through New York airports every year. Animal products including bushmeat \u2013 all potentially contaminated with nasty viruses \u2013 pour into New York City regularly.<\/p>\n

How many viruses remained to be discovered? A survey of one species of bats found fifty-five viruses, fifty of which were new to science.
\nLipkin estimated 320,000 viruses were still unknown. He then covered virus\u2019 able to escape from bats, ticks\u00a0 and rats into humans.<\/p>\n

Bats \u2013 Called in to investigate an ill Saudi Arabian man (with four wives), he uncovered a new virus called MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) which was similar to those found in bats. (Asked if there were any bats in the area, he was told no. The next video showed bats flying every which way in the area :)). If the bats weren\u2019t biting the humans, though, how was the bat virus jumping into people?<\/p>\n

MERS appears to have been present in bats for quite some time. It spread to camels in the 1990\u2019s and then jumped from camels to humans around 2010.<\/p>\n

MERS is not particularly easy to transmit but when it gets transmitted, watch out. Death rates are high. It took one Saudi Arabian to spread MERS to South Korea this year where it killed several dozen people, put several thousand into quarantine and basically threw the country into a panic. Schools were closed, tourists stopped coming, and parts of the economy<\/a> slumped as South Korea fought off the virus. MERS is the kind of virus that keeps public health officials up at night.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that Lipkin is wary of pathogens. He noted that he rarely shakes hands but darting a glance at Dr. Peterson said he\u2019d made an exception that evening. (If you haven\u2019t seen Steven Soderbergh film \u201cContagion\u201d<\/a> and can handle apocalyptic scenario\u2019s you might want to give it a try. Lipkin consulted extensively on the movie which involved a worst-case scenario of a virus wiping out much of humanity. The film was praised for its scientific accuracy. (Spoiler alert \u2013 we do survive in the end :)).<\/p>\n

Ticks \u2013\u00a0 Lipkin believes chronic Lyme patients who are not recovering from antibiotics probably got another infection from the ticks. Lipkin found that over 70% of the Ixodes scapularis ticks associated with Lyme disease carried at least one pathogen <\/a>and 30% carried more than one in New York. Last year he identified a rhabdovirus (Long Island tick rhabdovirus) new not just to ticks but to science itself. A small survey suggested that 15% of residents may carry antibodies to the virus.<\/p>\n

Rats- Lipkin\u2019s study<\/a> of New York City\u2019s second most common resident \u2013 rats \u2013 revealed they carried an amazing array of pathogens including Escherichia coli, Clostridium difficile, and Salmonella enterica, Bartonella spp., Streptobacillus moniliformis, Leptospira interrogans, and Seoul hantavirus.<\/p>\n

Lipkin is understandably wary of pathogens. He noted that he rarely shakes hands but darting a glance at Dr. Peterson said he\u2019d made an exception that evening.<\/p>\n

Later Lipkin referred to the hamburger and French fries lunch that he and Peterson usually have saying do as we say not as we do. How does Lipkin reportedly like his meat? \u201cBurn it\u201d he tells the waiter. The man is taking no chances \u2013 he knows too much.<\/p>\n

Infection and Disease<\/strong><\/p>\n

A pathogen is just one of the players, however, in a vast swirl of factors which ultimately determines whether one is going to have a chronic illness. Timing, for instance, is a key factor. If you expose a mouse to a pathogen at one stage of pregnancy, it\u2019ll stop moving around its cage. If you expose the same mouse to the same pathogen later in pregnancy, it will run round and around its cage unceasingly.<\/p>\n

A large autism study underscored the complex role timing plays. The\u00a0120,000 person autism birth cohort study found that if a mother comes down with a fever after the first trimester, her chances of giving birth to a son with autism go up three-fold.\u00a0 If she treats the fever with acetaminophen, her chances of giving birth to an autistic child drop significantly.\u00a0 If she takes acetaminophen for any other problem than a fever, her risk of giving birth to an autistic child goes up again.<\/p>\n

Three to Five Years \u2013 An ME\/CFS Timeline<\/strong><\/p>\n

How does all this relate to ME\/CFS? Likpin cited the findings of their work to date.<\/p>\n