Rapid Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases Phase 2

摘要

Research by DIGENE prior to the project award demonstrated the use of a new labeling system which allowed the attachment of peroxidase to nucleic acid probes. Preliminary studies of the directly labeled nucleic acid probes demonstrated sensitivity equal to, and in some cases greater than, existing radioactive and non-radioactive techniques. More importantly, the results revealed a signal-to-noise ratio which was several orders of magnitude better than the existing systems. The project resulted in the successful development of methods using enzyme-labeled nucleic acids for detection of a variety of herpesviruses in standard culture confirmation assays, in rapid culture assays, and in direct patient samples that were formalin fixed and paraffin embedded.