A mouse zoonotic virus (LCMV): A possible candidate in the causation of SIDS

Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus Lineage V in Wood Mice, Germany

We identified a novel lineage of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, tentatively named lineage V, in wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) from Germany. Wood mouse-derived lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus can be found across a substantially greater range than previously thought. Increased surveillance is needed to determine its geographic range and zoonotic potential.

Current SIDS research: time to resolve conflicting research hypotheses and collaborate

From the earliest publications on cot death or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) through to this day, clinical pathology and epidemiology have strongly featured infection as a constant association. Despite mounting evidence of the role of viruses and common toxigenic bacteria in the pathogenesis of SIDS, a growing school of thought featuring a paradigm based on the triple risk hypothesis that encompasses vulnerability through deranged homoeostatic control of arousal and/or cardiorespiratory function has become the mainstream view and now dominates SIDS research. The mainstream hypothesis rarely acknowledges the role of infection despite its notional potential role as a cofactor in the triple hit idea. Decades of mainstream research that has focussed on central nervous system homoeostatic mechanisms of arousal, cardiorespiratory control and abnormal neurotransmission has not been able to provide consistent answers to the SIDS enigma. This paper examines the disparity between these two schools of thought and calls for a collaborative approach. IMPACT: The popular research hypothesis explaining sudden infant death syndrome features the triple risk hypothesis with central nervous system homoeostatic mechanisms controlling arousal and cardiorespiratory function. Intense investigation has not yielded convincing results. There is a necessity to consider other plausible hypotheses (e.g., common bacterial toxin hypothesis). The review scrutinises the triple risk hypothesis and CNS control of cardiorespiratory function and arousal and reveals its flaws. Infection-based hypotheses with their strong SIDS risk factor associations are reviewed in a new context.

Reemergence of Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Mammarenavirus, Germany

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis mammarenavirus (LCMV) is a globally distributed zoonotic pathogen transmitted by house mice (Mus musculus). We report the reemergence of LCMV (lineages I and II) in wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) and LCMV lineage I in a diseased golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) from a zoo in Germany.

The Science (or Nonscience) of Research Into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

This Viewpoint paper presents a timely and constructive critique of mainstream SIDS research. It is concerning that twenty-first century medical science has not provided an answer to the tragic enigma of SIDS. The paper helps explain why this is so and illustrates possible shortcomings in the investigation of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome/Sudden Unexplained Infant Death (SIDS/SUID) by mainstream researchers. Mainstream findings are often based on questionable and dogmatic assumptions that return to founding notions such as the Triple Risk Hypothesis and the contention that the mechanisms underlying SIDS/SUID are heterogeneous in nature. The paper illustrates how the pathological findings in SIDS have been under-investigated (or ignored) and that key epidemiological risk factors have slipped from memory. This apparent amnesia has resulted in failure to use these established SIDS facts to substantiate the significance of various neuropathological, neurochemical, or other research findings. These unsupported findings and their derivative hypotheses are therefore ill-founded and lack scientific rigor.

CONCLUSION

The deficits of SIDS "science" revealed in this paper explain why the SIDS enigma has not yet been solved. To make progress in understanding SIDS, it is important that researchers, as scientists, uphold standards of research. Encouragement for new directions of research is offered.