ASCO GU: Novel Retrovirus Mimics HIV Transmission
07.03.10
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Infectious disease experts, too, have likened their scramble to make sense of the virus to the early days of HIV research, but caution that there has yet to be any clear causal evidence showing that XMRV leads to disease.
XMRV first came to light four years ago when Klein and a team from the University of California San Francisco turned up evidence of a retrovirus that resembled the murine leukemia virus during a broad sweep for viruses in prostate cancer samples .
The link remains controversial, with reports indicating widely varying prevalence in prostate cancer samples and antibodies in few blood samples.
In this cohort of unselected prostate cancer cases treated with radical prostatectomy, 15% tested positive for XMRV in secretions squeezed from the tissue.
The virus has also been implicated in a high number of chronic fatigue syndrome cases in an apparent outbreak, but studies have been unable to confirm the link in other cohorts.
In a collaboration between the Cleveland Clinic, Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, and Abbott Diagnostics to develop an animal model, Klein's group injected rhesus monkeys with live XMRV cloned from prostate tumor samples of unselected men who underwent radical prostatectomy.
Source: MedPage Today
U.S. v. XU
05.03.10
U.S. v. XU
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
KEVIN XU, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 09-20074.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
Filed: March 4, 2010.
Before: SMITH, GARZA, and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge.
Appellant Kevin Xu was convicted by a jury of conspiring to traffic in counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count 1), introducing into interstate commerce misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 331(a) and 333(a)(2) (Counts 2-4), and trafficking in counterfeit goods, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2320(a) (Counts 5 — 9). Xu filed a post-verdict motion for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29(c) as to Counts 5 — 9 for trafficking in counterfeit Zyprexa, Tamiflu, Plavix, Casodex, and Aricept, respectively. The district court granted his motion, except as to Count 5, for trafficking in counterfeit Zyprexa. Xu appeals his conviction on that count, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the Zyprexa trademark was: (1) registered on the principal register in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and (2) "in use" at the time of the offense.
Source: Leagle.com