METHOD FOR QUANTITATIVELY DETERMINING AN ANTIBODY HAVING THE ABILITY TO INHIBIT THE ACTIVITY OF A REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE

摘要

Disclosed is a method for quantitatively determining anantibody, contained in a biological sample, having the ability toinhibit the activity of a reverse transcriptase derived from anHIV, comprising: reacting a hybridization product, immobilized ona solid phase, of a primer consisting essentially of oligodeox-ythymine nucleotide and an RNA template consisting essentially ofadenine ribopolynucleotide with a reverse transcriptase derivedfrom HIV, to thereby bind the reverse transcriptase to the hybrid-ization product; conducting a synthesis of a DNA complementary tothe RNA template from a deoxymononucleotide triphosphate in thepresence of the reverse transcriptase activity-inhibiting anti-body; and measuring the amount of the synthesized DNA and quanti-tatively determining the above-mentioned antibody, based on themeasured amount of the synthesized DNA. The method of the presentinvention can be performed with ease and with high reproducibilityin classifying and quantitatively determining the antibodiesagainst the epitopes of a viral reverse transcriptase. By themethod of the present invention, not only the virus having mutatedduring a latent period thereof, and the properties which the virusexhibits as a result of the mutation, but also a virus having ac-quired drug resistance as a result of the administration of thedrugs to the host, can be studied by quantitatively determiningthe antibodies. Further, it has also become possible to accurate-ly and promptly determine the changes in the infected host, suchas the change in the ability to produce antibodies, which occur inaccordance with the progression of illness.