Evaluation and comparison of the Amplicor HIV-1 PCR kit with an ‘in-house’ nested PCR
1995; Elsevier BV; Volume: 4; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/0928-0197(95)00016-x
ISSN1873-4901
AutoresKatrien Fransen, I Van Kerckhoven, Peter Piot, Guido van der Groen,
Tópico(s)Herpesvirus Infections and Treatments
ResumoThe polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a powerful gene amplification technique, is moving rapidly from the research laboratory into routine clinical use.To evaluate the specificity and sensitivity of a commercially available PCR kit, the Amplicor HIV-1 PCR kit (AMP) and to compare it with an in-house nested PCR, which amplified part of the POL gene (POL(n)).A total of 517 samples were tested by AMP, including 159 fresh whole blood specimens from HIV-1 antibody positive Europeans and 358 archival samples (338 seropositive and 20 seronegative individuals) originating from 35 different countries in Africa and Europe. We compared the performance of AMP on the archival samples with POL(n).The overall sensitivity and specificity as compared to HIV-1 serology were 93% and 100%, and 96% and 100%, for AMP and the in-house PCR, respectively. Repeat testing on co-cultured lymphocytes increased the sensitivity of AMP to 95%.AMP is a rapid, and easy to use commercially available PCR kit, since only one amplification of the test sample is required. Moreover, the use of radioactivity is omitted, and reading of the test can be done with a spectrophotometer. The use of at least one additional primer pair may increase confidence in distinguishing a positive and negative sample by both PCR techniques.
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