Application of Biophysical, Biochemical, Immunologic and Molecular Virologic Techniques in Rapid Viral Diagnosis

摘要

In the area of antigen detection a practical, rapid, sensitive specific assay for the detection of herpes simplex virus and varicella zoster virus antigens in clinical specimens has been developed. In the area of antibody assay, an extremely sensitive and specific assay for antibody to HIV using as antigen a synthetic oligopeptide has been developed. The assay has also been modified to permit the simultaneous detection of antibody to HIV and hepatitis B surface antigen. The bulk of effort supported by the contract has been to develop practical sensitive methods for the detection of virus specific sequences of nucleic acid in clinical material. Investigations have included the assay for HIV nucleic acid directly extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, the systematic evaluation of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for these purposes, and most recently and importantly the development of a new method for genome amplification. The new method, self-sustained sequence replication (3SR), is an isotherma, single cycle methodology that holds great promise for applications that are practical, quantitative and non-isotopic.