Patent ID: 6361941
Filing Date: 2002-03-26
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
A method of determining whether a subject is afflicted with a disorder characterized by the presence of a known nucleic acid mutation, which comprises the steps of(a) isolating a sample of nucleic acid molecules from the subject; (b) (i) amplifying the nucleic acid segment present in the isolated sample, which segment is known to contain the mutation in a subject afflicted with the disorder, and (ii) under suitable conditions, contacting the resulting amplified segment with a catalytic nucleic acid molecule which specifically recognizes and cleaves a target sequence present either (1) in the nucleic acid segment having the known mutation or (2) in the corresponding wild-type nucleic acid segment, but not both, with the proviso that step (ii) can be performed either subsequent to or concurrently with step (i); and (c) determining whether the catalytic nucleic acid molecule in step (b) (ii) cleaves the amplified segment, so as to determine whether the subject is afflicted with the disorder, wherein the amplifying step and the step of contacting the amplified nucleic acid segment with catalytic nucleic acid molecule occurs in the same reaction vessel.