Patent ID: 8030032
Filing Date: 2011-10-04
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
1. A method for ascertaining whether a sample includes a first strain of a herpes virus or a second strain of a herpes virus, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a single vessel wherein said vessel comprises a reaction mixture consisting of (1) a nucleic acid from the sample, (2) a forward primer, (3) a reverse primer, (4) a first probe specific to the first strain, and (5) a second probe specific to the second strain,  wherein the forward primer and the reverse primer are capable of acting together as a primer pair in the amplification, by the polymerase chain reaction, of a segment of the genome of both (1) the first strain to produce a first amplicon, and (2) the second strain to produce a second amplicon, and  wherein the nucleotide sequence of the first amplicon and the nucleotide sequence of the second amplicon are not identical; (b) incubating the vessel under conditions allowing production of (1) the first amplicon if the sample contains the first strain, and (2) the second amplicon if the sample contains the second strain; and (c) detecting a first signal generated from the first probe if the first amplicon is produced in (b), and detecting a second signal generated from the second probe if the second amplicon is produced in (b),  wherein the first strain is HSV-1 and the second strain is HSV-2, and the first amplicon and the second amplicon contain a segment of the open reading frame of a gene encoding glycoprotein B.