METHOD FOR POLYMERASE ACTIVITY DETERMINATION

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of quantitatively determining nucleic acid polymerase activity in a sample, comprising incubation of the sample with a natural or completely or partially synthetic polynucleotide template and a reagent solution containing the necessary substrates including at least one radiolabeled nucleoside triphosphate complementary to the template, separation of the template from the substrate, and measurement of the radioactivity incorporated into the template, which radioactivity is substantially proportional to the polymerase activity in the sample, and wherein, when a primer is required, the latter is either hybridized to the template from the start or added during the determination. According to the invention the template is immobilized to a carrier, said nucleoside triphosphate is labeled with a gamma-radiating isotope, and the measurement of the incorporated radioactivity is performed directly on the immobilized template without release thereof from the carrier. The invention also relates to a kit for determining of nucleic acid polymerase activity, comprising a carrier-bound template and a substrate labeled with a gamma-radiating isotope.

Description: Method for polymerase activity determination The present invention relates to a novel method of quantitatively determining polymerase activity. Intracellular parasites, such as viruses, use the syn- thetic machinery of the cell for producing, based upon their own genetic information, specific parasitic elements instead of cell material. Among the elements encoded by the genome of the parasite are usually certain enzymes necessary for their replication, such as RNA or DNA polymerase or reverse tran- scriptase (also called RNA-dependent DNA polymerase), or essential for ensuring precursors for the production of genetic material, such as kinases, ribonucleotide reductase and deoxyribonuclease. The i munological specificity of virally encoded enzymes as well as their relation to virus replication activity has made it interesting to design procedures for measuring such activities in clinical samples. This is especially true for the above mentioned polymerases. Thus, DNA polymerase acti¬ vity may be detected in serum in connection with certain malign and viral diseases. The activity of reverse transcrip- tase has proved to be specifically characteristic for certain viruses involved in various neoplastic conditions, e.g., certain human leukemias, as well as for certain viral disea¬ ses, including the immunodeficiency disease AIDS and its preliminary stages caused by the human immunodeficiency virus HIV. The determination of polymerase activity may thus be of value as a diagnostic method for detecting the presence of such diseases, monitoring the effect of the treatment of affected patients or monitoring patients after the treatment in respect of recurrences, such that the treatment may be started early before any clinical symptoms appear. Generally, activity of DNA and RNA polymerases and reverse transcriptase may be determined by adding a suitably processed sample to a reaction solution in which the poly¬ merase in question may exert its action and to this end contains a template of DNA- or RNA-type dissolved in the reaction solution, and a substrate in the form of a radio- labeled nucleoside triphosphate which is incorporated into the template by the activity of the polymerase, whereupon the radioactivity incorporated is measured. For DNA polymerase a double-stranded DNA material comprising single strand regions (i.e. provided with so-called nicks) may be used as temp¬ late, while reverse transcriptase will act upon a single nucleotide chain of RNA-type, which on a part thereof must be hybridized with a so-called primer in the form a deoxyribonu- cleotide oligomer or a t-RNA, which is required to initiate the polymerization reaction catalyzed by the polymerase. As *3 • * * > radioactive isotopes for labeling the substrates °H or -^P have usually been used. More specifically, US-A-3,755,086 discloses a method of detecting activity of reverse transcriptase in purified cell extract or plasma samples from mammals or birds, the template used being a polymer of RNA-type hybridized with a synthetic thymidine polynucleotide oligomer of 2-24 nucleotide units as a primer. In this method the purified sample is added to a reaction solution containing the template and 3 H-labeled nucleoside triphosphate. After incubation the reaction is stopped and the template is precipitated by adding trichloro- acetic acid (TCA) and taken up on a filter. The dried filter is then placed in a scintillation fluid, and the radioacti¬ vity incorporated into the template, which activity is a measure of the polymerase activity, is measured by liquid scintillation technique. Similar methods specifically directed to HlV-determina- tion via reverse transcriptase have been described inter alia by A. D. Hoffman et al., Virology 147, 326-335 (1985) and M. H. Lee et al., J. Clin. Microbiol.; Sept. 1987, pp. 1717-1721. These conventional methods for the determination of reverse transcriptase activity, however, suffer from several disadvantages. Thus, the analysis can not be performed di- rectly on clinical specimens due to the presence of distur¬ bing factors, such as RNAses, phosphatases and competitive nucleotides. Also, the TCA-precipitation on a filter con¬ siderably restricts the sample volume that can be used, and thereby the sensitivity, the background in the scintillatio determination of the radioactivity depending on the filte size. A further disadvantage is the use of 3 H as radioactiv isotope, since, on one hand, it gives a low specific activit due to the relatively long half-life and can therefore not b used for low substrate concentrations, and, on the othe hand, due to its type of radiation it gives problems wit absorption of the radiation in the sample, so-called quen ching. It additionally requires the use of a scintillatio fluid for the activity determination, the possible clinica utility thereby being restricted. The above mentioned isotop 3 P which has also been used in similar contexts certainl has a high specific activity permitting it to be used at lo substrate concentrations, but its short half-life (14 days) makes it unsuitable for practical use. The isotope 35 S whic has also been used for these purposes will, due to its wea /3-radiation, give considerable quenching problems. Synthetic polynucleotides immobilized on a carrier, e.g. agarose, have previously been used for affinity purifi cation of polymerases. Moreover, carrier-bound templates hav been used for producing specific single-stranded DNA probes (P. L. Ashley et al.. Anal. Biochem. 140, 95-103 (1984)). Further B. I. Milavetz et al. , Mol. Pharmacol., 13, 496-503 (1977), disclose the use of poly(A)-agarose as an immobilize template for identifying binding reactions taking place i the polymerization of DNA and investigating the inhibitin effect of various drugs (ansamycines) on DNA synthesis. Fo studying the drug inhibition, for example, the drugs dis¬ solved in a buffer were passed through a column containin the polymerase bound to poly(A)-agarose hybridized wit oligo(dT)12-18 as primer and which had been produced b adsorbing the polymerase to the poly(A)-agarose and subse¬ quently adding the primer. The polymerase activity of the column material was then determined by incubation in a reac- tion solution with 3 H-deoxythymidine triphosphate ( 3 H-dTTP). After hydrolysis with NaOH and precipitation of the temp¬ late/primer material with TCA, the radioactivity incorporate into the template was determined. Although the actual poly- merization reaction was performed on the immobilized temp¬ late, the subsequent radioactivity measurement thus required release of the template from the carrier and precipitation with TCA as in the above described determination method for polymerase activity. Similar methods as described above for determining reverse transcriptase have been used for measuring DNA poly¬ merase, i.e. by following the incorporation of a radioactive nucleotide into a free DNA template in solution by measure- ment after precipitation on a filter paper by TCA or etha- nol. As template has usually been used nuclease treated, so- called activated, DNA and as radioactive isotope, 3 H or 32 P. The above discussed disadvantages of the hitherto used deter¬ mination methods for reverse transcriptase therefore also concern the determination of DNA polymerase. One purpose of the present invention is to provide an improved method of quantitatively determining polymerase activity, which method will eliminate most or all of the disadvantages of the prior art methods. Another purpose of the invention is to provide a kit for determining polymerase activity. These objects are achieved by a method and a kit, respectively, which have the features stated in the claims and which will be described in more detail hereinafter. Thus, the invention in a first aspect thereof relates to a method of quantitatively determining polymerase activity in a sample by incubating the sample with a natural or comple¬ tely or partially synthetic polynucleotide template and necessary substrates, including at least one radiolabeled nucleoside triphosphate complementary to the template, sepa- rating the template from the substrate and measuring the radioactivity incorporated into the template, which radio¬ activity is substantially proportional to the polymerase activity of the sample, said method being characterized in that the template is immobilized on a carrier and that the radiolabeled nucleoside triphosphate is labeled with a gamma- radiating isotope, and that the measurement of the incor¬ porated radioactivity is performed directly on the immobili¬ zed template without release thereof from the carrier. By using, in accordance with the invention, an immobi lized template and measuring the radioactivity taken u directly on the immobilized template without any precedin release thereof several advantages are achieved. Thus, th previous sample volume limiting, and thereby sensitivit reducing, TCA precipitation on a filter is eliminated suc that larger sample volumes may be used with a consequential increase of the sensitivity. By virtue of performing the measurement directly on the immobilized template also the technical analytical procedure will be simplified conside¬ rably. Further, the use of a gamma-radiating isotope will eliminate the previous problem of quenching and the need of a scintillation fluid. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the template is first incubated with the sample or specimen for incorporation of the polymerase present in the specimen into the template; the template with the affinity bound polymerase is then after washing contacted with the reagent solution containing the radiolabeled substrate and, when necessary, a primer, such as when the polymerase to be determined is reverse transcriptase. The primer may in that case be present on the template from the start or be added during the deter¬ mination procedure. By thus incubating the template with the specimen prior to the actual polymerase determination it has surprisingly been found that a polymerase determination may be performed directly on clinical specimens, such as sera and lymphocyte extracts taken directly from the patient. The disturbing factors, such as RNAses (in high concentration in cell ex- tracts and also in cell supernatants) and competitive nucleo- tides, which occur in clinical specimens, thus appear to have a low affinity to the template. As will be discussed in more detail further on the template may optionally be protected during the affinity binding of the polymerase, i.e. the "fish step", and/or the subsequent enzyme activity determination with suitable agents. Both "semi-solid" materials, such as gels, and solid bodies may be used as carriers for immobilizing the template. Methods for coupling polynucleotides to various carriers are known and will not be described in any detail herein. As examples of gels may be mentioned agarose gels and Sepharose-B' (a bead-shaped agarose gel marketed by Pharmacia AB, Sweden) . Commercially available immobilized templates that may be used for the purposes of the invention are, e.g., poly(A)-agarose (poly(A) covalently bound to CNBr-activated agarose; P-L Biochemicals, USA), poly(A)-Sepharose y (Pharmacia AB, Swe- den). Exemplary of solid carriers are, e.g., balls, spheres or beads (also micro- or macrospheres) of plastic, e.g., polystyrene or polycarbonate spheres. A solid carrier sui¬ table due to the simplified separation offered thereby is magnetic spheres or beads, e.g., tosylated magnetic Dynabeads (Dynal AS, Oslo, Norway). The carrier-immobilized template to be used in each particular case will, of course, primarily depend on the polymerase to be determined. For determining reverse tran¬ scriptase the template should thus be a polynucleotide chain of RNA-type, in which case it may be a homopolymer, such as poly(rA), poly(rU), poly(rG), poly(rC) and poly(rl), or a synthetic, semi-synthetic or natural copolymer built up from combinations thereof. While, in the case of a homopolymer only the corresponding complementary nucleoside triphoshpate or analogue is required as substrate, a copolymer will, of course, require the use of complementary substrates to all the nucleotides; in the latter case only one of the sub¬ strates need, however, be labeled. As previously mentioned a primer will be required to initiate the polymerization reaction in an assay for reverse transcriptase. In the present context primer means a nucleo¬ tide chain which may hybridize with the template, such as an oligonucleotide. For example, oligo(dT) will function as a primer for for poly(rA), and oligo(dG) for poly(rC) . Depen- ding upon the origin thereof different reverse transcriptases may exhibit different preferences for different template/pri¬ mer combinations. " Since DNA polymerases act naturally upon templates in the form of double stranded DNA chains provided with so- called nicks, i.e. holes in one of the strands, the template supported by the carrier may in this case consist of a natu¬ ral, semi-synthetic or synthetic double nucleotide chain of DNA-type provided with single strand regions. Also in this case the nucleotide chains may be homo- or copolymers. Alter¬ natively, a single nucleotide chain having at least one double stranded region composed of long strand DNA and a short strand of either RNA or DNA may function as a template. As immobilized template materials for RNA polymerases a double stranded natural or synthetic or semi-synthetic DNA chain may be used. In this case no single strand regions are required, but a primer may sometimes be necessary depending on the particular RNA polymerase. For RNA-dependent RNA poly- merases immobilized RNA, "primed" in suitable manner will, of course, be required. Since RNAses (e.g. in lymphocytes) will cleave phospho- ester bonds, the template has suitably been chemically modi¬ fied to completely or partially prevent cleavage. This may, e.g., be achieved by 2'-0-methylation (poly(Cm) etc.), P- methylation or P-sulphonation. Such modification of poly- nucleotides is per se previously known, see e.g. Murray and Atkinson, Biochem. 2(H), 4023-4029 (1968), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The substrate to be used for the polymerase catalyzed polymerization reaction will depend on the template used and should thus comprise nucleoside triphosphates or analogues complementary to all the nucleotides present in the template. As mentioned above, in accordance with the invention, at least one nucleoside triphosphate is labeled with a gamma- radiating radioactive isotope. The gamma-radiating isotope is preferably one having a half-life in the range of about 20 days to 1 year. Particu¬ larly suitable for the purposes of the invention are iodine isotopes, preferably 1 - 25 I, having a half-life of 60 days and a specific activity exceeding 2000 Ci/mMole. Due to the use of a gamma-radiating isotope quenching problems and the need of a scintillation fluid are eli i- nated, and measurement directly on the immobilized template in accordance with the inventive method is rendered possible. A particularly suitable radiolabeled substrate for the purposes of the invention is ***- 25 I-5-iodine-2'-deoxyuridine triphosphate, hereinafter referred to as ***- 5 1-IUdRTP. In addition to 125 having an appropriate half-life for the pur¬ poses, being practical to handle and simple to measure due to its gamma-radiation, IUdRTP has great similarities with the natural substrate TTP (deox thymidine triphosphate), the difference between the substrates being that IUdRTP has an iodine atom in the five-position on the nucleotide base, while TTP has a methyl group (whose van der Waal radius only is a little smaller) . 125 I-IUdRTP may, for example, be prepared by treating 125 I-iodine-deoxyuridine (IUdR) with Herpes simplex enzymes and subsequent chromatographic separation of the products obtained, viz. 125 I-iodine-deoxyuridine-monophosphate (IUdRMP) and 125 I-IUdRTP. 125 I-IUdRTP as well as substrate analogues thereof will be described in more detail further on. For measurements directly on serum specimens and the like containing substrate degrading enzymes, the substrate may be protected by the addition of one or more trinucleo- tides which do not take part in the polymerization reaction but will engage the degrading enzyme in question. For inter alia the above mentioned substrate 125 I-IUdRTP, cytidine triphosphate (CTP) has been found to be an excellent protec¬ tive factor. Other protective factors that may be contempla¬ ted are, e.g., UTP, IUTP, 5-MeUTP. The modified variation of the inventive method including an initial "fish-step" may be used directly on clinical specimens, various isolation materials, lymphocytes, super- natants, etc., in contrast to the prior art methods, which for virus polymerases have been limited to pelleted viral materials or purified samples. For example, an assay may be performed directly on lymphocyte extracts without a preceding culture or purification thereof. A presently interesting application of the invention as far as activity determination for reverse transcriptase is concerned, is the determination of replication activity of HIV, the virus which eventually causes AIDS. The amount of reverse transcriptase from HIV in a patient specimen is a measure of this activity, and an accurate determination thereof is of great value for an analysis of the relationship of the activity with the development of the disease and a follow-up of the result of therapy. In this context the possibility of being able to determine the individual patient's enzyme sensitivity to various nucleotide analogues used as therapeuticals appears to be extremely interesting. Concerning HIV the invention may advantageously also be used when measuring antibodies that block HIV reverse tran¬ scriptase activity; it has been found that the level of antibodies against reverse transcriptase in sera is related to the stage of the disease (see e.g. R. Schatterjee et al., J. Clin. Im un., Vol. 7, No. 3, 1987), and a measurement of the antibody level is therefore interesting from a prognostic point of view. Such an antibody measurement, which previously required purification of IgG-fractions from the serum, may with the inventive method be performed directly on the clini¬ cal serum specimen. Thus, a defined quantity of HIV reverse transcriptase is incubated with different serum dilutions, the residual amount of non-blocked enzyme then being deter- mined by the method of the invention. Essential for the possibility of a direct assay with the inventive method is, firstly, the increased sensitivity which permits the measurement of low enzyme amounts, causing high antibody titres to be obtained, and, secondly, that, as mentioned above, non-enzyme disturbing nucleotide(s) , such as cytidine triphosphate (CTP), may be added to engage substrate degrading enzymes in sera. The latter will permit long dura¬ tion assays with serum present. These criteria for increased sensitivity in measurements of HIV reverse transcriptase are also essential for direct DNA polymerase measurements in sera from healthy individuals and from those suffering from va¬ rious kinds of diseases. Due to the improved sensitivity of the method of the invention in comparison with the prior art determination methods the invention will also be applicable to polymerase determinations which have hitherto not been possible. For example, in W. Sibrowski et al., Z. Gastroentero- logie 1987, 25, 673-676, there is suggested the possibility of detecting NANB hepatite by determining the activity of the reverse transcriptase of the causal retrovirus. Furthermore, for example, reference levels of DNA poly¬ merase may be measured directly in sera from healthy indivi- duals, which in combination with enhanced levels in various diseases will provide a new clinical parameter for the judge¬ ment of diseases. The polymerase determination method according to the invention is, of course, not limited to specimens from human beings, but it may just as well be applied to animal speci¬ mens, e.g. for determining leukoviral activity. The application of the method of the invention to quan¬ titative determination of HIV reverse transcriptase may, for example, be performed in the following way: An immobilized template functional for viral reverse transcriptase (e.g. poly(rA)-polystyrene beads) is preincuba¬ ted directly with a crude specimen (e.g. a supernatant, cell extract, serum). After careful washing (e.g. distilled water) a suitable reaction mixture is added, comprising a primer (e.g. oligo(dT) 10 _ 18 ), a labeled substrate (e.g. 125 I-IUdRTP) and other necessary components (including Mg 2+ ). After in¬ cubation and wash (distilled water) the radioactivity incor¬ porated into the template is measured by a gamma-counter. The measurement value obtained is directly related to the acti- vity of reverse transcriptase in the specimen. While carrying out the inventive method with a gel form or particulate template in conventional test tubes will offer considerable advantages in comparison with current methods, the technical procedure may be further simplified, for example, by binding the template to a single handable macro- sphere or ball or by carrying out the assay in a minicolumn system. As mentioned above preferred radiolabeled substrates for the purposes of the invention are constituted by 125 I-IUdRT and substrate analogues thereof. By substrate analogues of 125 I-IUdRTP are meant 125 I-labeled modified nucleoside tri- phosphates having substantially the same substrate functio as 125 I-IUdRTP. 125 I-IUdRTP has the following structural formula As examples of contemplated substrate analogues may thus be mentioned those where one or more of the hydrogens in the positions 3, 6, 2', 3', 4' and 5' are replaced by fluorine and/or one or more of the hydrogens in 4'- and 5'-position are replaced by CH3, CH2 , CHF 2 , CF 3 , iodine or bromine and/or one or more of the oxygen atoms present in the mole¬ cule are replaced by sulphur atoms, particularly the oxygen atoms of the α-phosphate group. Alternatively, or in combina- tion with the above mentioned modifications, 125 I-atoms may be in the 4'- or 5*-position, the 5'-position optionally being substituted with CH3, CHF2, CF3, iodine or bromine. The use of 125 I-IUdRTP and its substrate analogues also offer a considerable improvement in determination methods based upon free template in solution. The use of 125 I-IϋdRTP and its substrate analogues for determining polymerase acti¬ vity in general is the object of our copending PCT-applica- tion entitled "Substrate for polymerase activity determina¬ tion", the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. The present invention also provides, in a second aspect thereof, a kit for determining polymerase activity. Such a kit comprises a carrier-bound template, and at least one gamma-radiating radiolabeled nucleoside triphosphate comple- mentary to the template, preferably 125 I-IUdRTP or a sub¬ strate analogue thereof. In case a primer is required, such may be included as a separate item in the kit, or the temp¬ late may be provided in a primed form. A kit for the deter¬ mination of antibodies against HIV-RT as outlined above will additionally comprise a given quantity of HIV-RT, preferably lyophilized. The above kits suitably also comprise positive and/or negative controls and wash fluid. Hereinafter the invention will be described in more detail with respect to the preferred substrate 125 I-IUdRTP, the preparation of some immobilized templates, studies of parameters in specific embodiments of the inventive method as well as some special working examples. The following abbreviations and tradenames are used: IUdRTP 5-iodine-2'-deoxyuridine triphosphate IUdRPM 5-iodine-2'-deoxyuridine monophosphate IUdR 5-iodine-2'-deoxyuridine prA poly(rA) = polyadenylic acid prG poly(rG) = polyguanylic acid ATP adenosine triphosphate DTE dithioerythritol DEAE--cellulose diethylaminoethyl-cellulose RT reverse transcriptase EGTA ethylene glycol bis-(β-aminoethylether)- N,N'-tetraacetic acid NP 40 Nonidet P40 HEPES N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-Z- ethanesulphonic acid odT oligodeoxythymidylic acid TP thymidine triphosphate CTP cytidine triphosphate TCA trichloroacetic acid BSA bovine serum albumin AMV avian myeloic leukemia HIV human immunodeficiency virus PBL peripheral blood lymphocytes Sepharose® a trademark for an agarose gel marketed by Pharmacia AB, Sweden Ficoll® = a trademark for a copolymer of sucrose and epichlorohydrin marketed by Pharmacia AB, Sweden Triton X-100 = polyethyleneglycol-p-isooctylphenylether TLC = thin layer chromatography Reference will be made to the accompanying drawings wherein: Fig. 1A illustrates time dependence of substrate turn¬ over with AMV-RT using primer-modified Sepharose® -prA gel as immobilized template. Fig. IB illustrates time dependence of substrate turn¬ over with partially purified HIV-RT using primer-modified Sepharose'B'-prA gel as immobilized template. Fig. 1C illustrates time dependence of substrate turn- over with AMV-RT using Norwegian magnetic beads as immobi¬ lized template. Figs. 2A and 2B illustrate the relation between amount of AMV-RT and catalytic activity using prA-Sepharose® (Fig. 2A) and prA-Norwegian magnetic beads (Fig. 2B) as immobilized template. Fig. 3A illustrates the relation between primer (od i2_ιg) concentration and catalytic activity of AMV-RT using prA-Norwegian magnetic beads as immobilized template. Fig. 3B illustrates the relation between primer (odT 2_i8) concentration and catalytic activity of AMV-RT using prA coupled to Sepharose® as immobilized template. Figs. 4A and 4B illustrate the effect on substrate turnover of concentration of immobilized template at con¬ stant template/primer ratio using primer-modified Sepharose® (Fig. 4A) and prA-Norwegian magnetic beads (Fig. 4B) as immobilized template. Fig. 5A illustrates recovery of AMV-RT from cultured PBL extracts as a function of time. Broken line indicates direct assay and unbroken line indicates modified method with ini- tial "fish" step, o-o represents reference enzyme without PBL extract, and V-V, +-+ and Δ-Δ, respectively, represent different lymphocyte extracts plus reference enzyme. Fig. 5B illustrates recovery in "fish" assay of AMV-RT mixed into serum as a function of time, x-x represents refe¬ rence enzyme without serum and o-o different sera mixed with reference enzyme. Fig. 6A illustrates recovery of HIV-RT from infected PBL culture supernatants as a function of time, o-o represents undiluted sample and x-x 1/5 dilution of sample. Broken line is direct assay, unbroken line "fish" assay. Fig. 6B illustrates recovery of HIV-RT from infected PBL extracts as a function of time, o-o represents 1/5 dilution and x-x 1/25 dilution of sample. Broken line is direct assay, unbroken line "fish" assay. Fig. 7 illustrates the influence of PBL extract on R assay, o-o represents direct assay with immobilized template, and •-• represents assay with initial "fish" step; indi¬ cates reference enzyme level in the absence of PBL. Fig. 8 illustrates the effect of different washin procedures on the recovery of AMV-RT from extracts fro 1.5'10 5 lymphocytes using immobilized template and initia "fish" step, x-x and Δ-Δ represent different washing proce dures, and o-o represents control recovered from buffer. Fig. 9 illustrates the influence of template destroyin factors in PBL extracts. The prA gel was preincubated wit extracts from: o-o 1.9•10 4 PBL cells; •-• 7.8*10 4 PBL cells; Δ-Δ 3.1-10 6 PBL cells. indicates preincubation in buffe (reference level) . The capacity of the gel to function a template in RT assay was then determined with AMV-RT. Fig. 10 illustrates the effect of different concentra tions of reducing agent (DTE) on RNA-DNA hybrid destroyin enzymes in PBL extracts, β-a represents measurement on ge and D-Dmeasurement in supernatant. Fig. 11 illustrates the inhibiting effect of prG on th activity of RNA-DNA hybrid destroying enzymes in PB extracts, β-a represents measurement on gel and D-D measure ment in supernatant. Figs. 12A and 12B illustrate the effect of differen concentrations of prG on HIV-RT detection in immobilize template assay without (Fig. 2A) and with (Fig. 2B) initia " fish" step . Fig. 13A illustrates the RT blocking capacity of a HI positive serum (π-α) compared with that of a HIV negativ serum (o-o) . Fig. 13B illustrates the necessary amount of RT blockin HIV negative serum for 50% inhibition of HIV-RT at differen HIV-RT dilutions: •-• 1/1; x-x 1/5; ■-■ 1/25; A-A 1/125. o- represents AMV (1/5). Fig. 14A is a bar chart representation illustrating th result of screening sera from healthy blood donors and HI Western blot positive sera for HIV-1 RT blocking antibodies using RT assay with 125 I-IUdRTP and immobilized template. Fig. 14B is a bar chart representation showing th distribution of RT blocking capacity of a large cohort o sera sampled before and after HIV Western blot (WB) positi vity of the patients. Stage 0 equals WB negative; stage 2 W positive but asymptomatic; stage 3 WB positive, only swolle lymph nodes; stage 4 WB positive, more symptoms equal ARC o AIDS. Fig. 15A illustrates the serum degradation of 125 ι IUdRTP with time at different concentrations of CTP. Fig. 15B illustrates the effect of different concentra tions of CTP on the activity of serum DNA polymerase. PREPARATION OF 125 I-IUdRTP (SUBSTRATE) A. Enzyme production Herpes simplex virus type 1, strain C42, was culture on BHK-C13S cells, as described by Gronowitz S., Kallande C, Infec. Immun. 29: 425-434 (1980). 16-24 hours after th viral infection the cells were pelleted in a centrifuge, an the cells were washed in physiological saline and thereafte resuspended in 10 ml of a buffer consisting of HEPES, 25 mM MgS0 , 10 M; ATP, 4 M; DTE, 10 mM; and glycerol, 25%; p 7.4. The cells were then sonicated for 2x30 seconds. After subsequent centrifugation of the cells at 250,000 x g for 12 min., the supernatant was diluted 1/8 with distilled wate and frozen in small portions at -70°C. B. Synthesis of 125 I-IUdRMP and 125 I-IUdRTP For the synthesis of 125 I-IUdRMP and 125 I-IUdRTP a reaction mixture with the following components was prepared: HEPES, 89.4 mM; MgCl 2 , 8.1 mM; KC1, 17.7 mM; NaF, 2.1 mM; ATP, 4 mM; and DTE, 5 mM; pH 7.4. In the standard procedure the carrier solution (water:ethanol) of 2-3 mCi 125 I-IUdR (2000 Ci/mMole) was evaporated. The remaining 125 I-IUdR was redissolved in 500 μl of the reaction mixture and incubated at 37°C with 50 μl of the enzyme preparation obtained in step A above for the desired period of time, usually 90 to 120 minutes. After the incubation the reaction was stopped by keeping the test tube in boiling water for 5 minutes. C. Purification The chromatography system consisted of a standard glass column of 10 mm inner diameter packed with a 3 ml bed of DEAE cellulose gel (Whatman) . The column was connected to a peristaltic pump, P-3 (Pharmacia AB, Sweden), allowing both direct and reversed flow. The flow used was 0.5-0.75 ml per min., and the absorbance (OD255) was monitored continuously with a Single Path Monitor UV-1 connected to a Single-channel Recorder REC-481 (Pharmacia AB, Sweden). The radioactivity in the eluent was monitored by a simple device consisting of a modified portable monitor for the detection of gamma radiation (scintillation meter type 5.40, Mini-instruments Ltd., Burnham on Crouch, England). The Nal-crystal was placed in front of the tube leading the eluent from the column. A single channel pen recorder was connected in parallel to the speaker of the monitor. Prior to each run, the column was washed with 1M HC1 and equilibrated with water. The sample was loaded on top of the column by use of the pump, and unbound material was eluted with three column volumes of distilled water. IUdR not utili¬ zed in the reaction was eluted with 10 ml of ethanol (95%). The flow of the column was reversed and material which had not entered the gel or been adsorbed was washed out with water. IUdRMP was specifically eluted from the column with 10 mM ammonium acetate, pH 5, which greatly affected the charge of the monophosphate group and decreased the bindin of the IUdRMP to the DEAE cellulose. IUdRTP was finall eluted with 25 mM MgCl 2 . The identity and purity of th product was determined by TLC. The collected peaks were stored at +4°C after additio of 0.02% merthiolate as preservative. This IUdRTP preparatio was used in the following experiments and assays withou further treatment. PRODUCTION OF IMMOBILIZED TEMPLATES prA coupled to magnetic beads High molecular weight prA (Pharmacia AB, Sweden) wa coupled to tosylated magnetic Dynabeads M 450 (Dynal AS Oslo, Norway) in the presence of an excess of prA. The coup ling procedure, and processing of the beads were in concor dance with the manufacturer's description for coupling o IgG, except that the IgG was substituted by prA (final con centration 150 μg/ml). prA coupled to polystyrene beads of alkylamine type Polystyrene beads (diameter 1/4") of alkylamine typ (Pierce) were activated with succinic anhydride, and hig molecular weight prA (Pharmacia AB, Sweden) was coupled t the beads by the use of ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide according to standard procedures. prA coupled to Sepharose® (prA gel Poly-A-Sepharose® (Pharmacia AB, Sweden), a commercia product of low molecular prA coupled to Sepharose®. prA coupled to polycarbonate beads High molecular weight prA (Pharmacia AB, Sweden) wa covalently coupled to polycarbonate beads by the use o ethyl-3-(3-diethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide in accordanc with standard procedures to link the prA amino group to th carboxyl group of the bead. Activated DNA coupled to Sepharose A) Coupling to activated CH-Sepharose® Activated (deoxyribonuclease treated) calf thymus DNA (Pharmacia AB, Sweden) was coupled to activated CH-Sepharose® (Pharmacia AB, Sweden). The manufacturer's coupling procedure and recommended incubation times were used. To 0.5 g Sepha- rose® were taken 1.5 mg of DNA. The product was kept in 50 mM of Hepes buffer, pH 8.0, with 0.05% merthiolate as preser¬ vative. B) Coupling to CNBr-Sepharos< Activated DNA as above was coupled to cyanogen bromide activated Sepharose® (Pharmacia AB, Sweden), in accordance with the manufacturer's description with the following modi¬ fications; coupling buffer: 10 mM KH 2 P0 4 ; blocking agent: ethanol amine; wash: 200 mM KC1 alternating with tris-buf- fer, pH 8.0. The product was kept in the tris-buffer with 0.05% merthiolate. (To 0.5 g of Sepharose® were taken 1.5 g of DNA) . Non-activated DNA coupled to a solid phase Previous studies have demonstrated that single-stranded DNA easily may be coupled to a solid phase, while the yield in the attempts to couple double-stranded DNA has been low. This problem has previously been circumvented by establishing single-stranded regions terminally in double-stranded DNA. To obtain a good yield of coupled double-stranded DNA the tempe¬ rature dependence of the DNA-hybridization was utilized herein, i.e. the chemical coupling to the solid matrix was performed at a high temperature of 90-100°C since single- strand conditions will then prevail. The temperature was then lowered either quickly or slowly depending on how well the base pairing was to take place, i.e., whether many nicks and a great disorder was desired or not. For the purpose of increasing the amount of nicks and single-strand regions also a solid matrix with coupled DNA as above was heated to 90- 100°C, and at this temperature sufficiently strongly nicked homologous DNA, i.e. short pieces of similar DNA, alterna¬ tively homologous RNA, was added, all for the purpose of increasing the utility of the coupled DNA as a substrate whe quantitating DNA polymerizing enzymes. A) Primary production of immobilized template DNA (2.5 mg/ml) was dissolved in 0.01M KH 2 P0 4 whil heating to 90-95°C. CNBr-4B gel (Pharmacia AB, Sweden) swollen and washed in accordance with the manufaturer' instructions, was then added dropwise with stirring (1 g dr weight/100 ml of DNA solution). The coupling reaction wa allowed to proceed for 4 hours to over-night with continue stirring and at 90-95°C, whereupon the gel was allowed t sediment and the supernatant was removed. 100 ml of ethano amine were then added and the mixture was stirred for 2 hour for inactivating any CNBr groups not consumed. Finally th gel was washed in a glass filter funnel with a 90-100°C war solution of 1) 200 mM KC1 in 5 mM tris-HCl, pH 8.0, and 2 only 5 mM tris-HCl. Thereafter the gel was suspended in 5 m tris-HCl, pH 8, and was then allowed to cool, or the whole o it was placed in a bath at 90°C, the heating of which wa then switched off to permit the gel to cool slowly. Th completed matrix was then kept in the tris-HCl buffer afte the addition of sodium azide. B) Further activation of immobilized DNA template The utility of the immobilized template in a DNA polyme rase assay may be amplified by introducing several nicks o primer sites. The conditions for an optimum template varie for different types of DNA polymerizing enzymes. A fundamen tal description of template activation will be given herein after. Immobilized template as above was heated to 90-100°C, and the desired primer, e.g. various degrees of DNAse-degene rated homologous DNA, was then added. The temperature wa subsequently lowered to obtain base pairing, and the gel wa then washed under stringent conditions with salt and tris-HC buffer to remove partially bound DNA. In analogous manner th standard template may be improved by high temperature addi tion of homologous RNA primer or, alternatively, syntheti DNA or RNA primer. RT-ACTIVITY DETERMINATION ETHODS RT-activity determination with free template The assay procedure is a modification of previously published procedures, e.g. in A.D. Hoffmann et al. Virology 147, 326-335 (1985). The reaction mixture consisted of (final concentra¬ tions): tris-HCl, 10 mM, pH 8.0; MgCl 2 , 4 mM; BSA, 0.5 mg/ml; NH 4 C1, 100 mM; NP 40, 0.37%; EGTA, 0.25 mM; prA, 0.625 μg/ml; °dTl2-18' 8xl0 -6 mg/ml; 3 H-TTP, 6xl0 "7 M. 125 I- IUdRTP was used instead of 3 H-TTP at about 5xl0 -8 M (specific activity 220 Ci/ Mole), unless otherwise specified. The assay volume, including 10% specimen, was 250 μl. The reaction mixture and specimen (containing polymerase) were mixed in a test tube and incubated for the desired time period with slow shaking at 30°C. The reaction was stopped by pipetting ali- quots, usually 40 μl, onto 3 cm 2 small glass fibre filters, the RNA/DNA-hybrid was precipitated by TCA, and after washing the radioactivity of the precipitate was measured with a gamma-counter (Packard Autogamma 200), the radioactivity representing the incorporation of labeled 125 I-IUdRTP into the template. RT-activity determination according to the invention - standard procedure The final concentration of the components in the assays were, unless otherwise specified: tris-HCl buffer, pH 8, 10 mM; KC1, 75 mM; MgCl 2 , 4 mM; EGTA, 0.19 mM; DTE, 10 mM; BSA, 0.5 mg/ml; NP-40, 0.38%; odT 0 _i8 / 1 * 0 μg/ml for short temp¬ lates and 0.05 μg/ml for long templates; IUdRTP 5.0 • 10 ~8 mM and the use of 0.1-1.0 μCi 125 I-IUdRTP per tube; 50 μl/- tube of template immobilized on magnetic beads (10 7 /ml) or to gel (5 g/40 ml), or on a macroball (of Pierce type); 50 μl of sample for enzyme analysis. The total assay volume was 500 μl unless otherwise indicated. After mixing the components (stock solutions), adding immobilized template and enzyme sample the test tubes were incubated at 30-35°C, and the reaction was stopped after the desired time by washing the solid matrix five times in 2.5 ml of distilled water with 0.5% Triton X-100. The 125 I-IUdRMP incorporated onto th solid matrix was determined in a gamma-counter. Normally th analyses were performed with triplicate samples, and th reaction was terminated after about 1-2 hours for the firs test tube, after 3-4 hours for the second test tube, and th last tube was incubated overnight in order to control th linearity of the enzyme activity with time. RT-activity determination according to the invention - modified procedure with enzyme purification In order to remove disturbing factors and to concentrat RT 0.025-1.0 ml of cell culture fluid, lymphocyte extract, o serum was first incubated with 0.050 ml solid template fo 20-30 minutes at 30°C or 8°C. The immobilized template wa then washed four times (2.5 ml) with distilled water alterna tively twice with 3 ml of Tris-HCl buffer, pH 7.7, whereupo components for RT-activity determination according to th invention were added to the above specified final concentra tions, and the RT-activity was determined by the above desc ribed standard procedure. DNA polymerase determination with immobilized template The reaction mixture consisted of tris-HCl, 10 mM, pH 8 MgCl2, 4 mM; bovine serum albumin, 0.5 g/1; 100 mM each o deoxyadenosine triphosphate, deoxyguanosine triphosphate an deoxycytidine triphosphate; cytidine triphosphate, 0.5 mM non-radioactive iodine-deoxyuridine triphosphate, 50 nM calf thymus DNA immobilized on CNBr-4B gel (Pharmacia AB Sweden), 50 μl gel suspension; dithioerythritol, 5 mM. 125 i IUdRTP, 1-5 nM (2-10 mCi/1). The final volume, including 1 volume-% sample was 500 μl. After rinsing off the substrate not consumed from th template by washing 5 times with 10 μM NaH2P0 4 in distille water the amount of radioactive nucleotide incorporated int the .DNA was determined by measuring the gel in a gamma counter. STUDY OF RT-ACTIVITY DETERMINATION PROCEDURES Hereinafter experiments performed with the standard and, respectively, modified RT-activity determination method with regard to various parameters will be described. RT and clinical specimens used Purified AMV-RT (Pharmacia AB, Sweden). Clinical speci¬ mens were simulated by mixing this enzyme and the specimen investigated. Gene-cloned HIV-RT derived from bacteria (from Prof. Bror Strandberg, BMC, Uppsala, Sweden). Lysate from HIV-infected lymphocyte cultures treated with Triton X100 (final cone. 1.3%) (obtained from the Natio¬ nal Swedish Bacteriological Laboratory, Stockholm, Sweden) . Supernatants from virus isolation attempts (obtained from the National Swedish Bacteriological Laboratory, Stock¬ holm, Sweden) . Whole blood cell extracts were obtained from Rikshospi- talet, Copenhagen, Denmark and prepared by washing the cells 6-fold in a physiological solution, whereafter the cells were resuspended to original concentration in Triton X-100 and frozen at -70°C before use in assay. Efficiency of immobilized template In accordance with the above described standard proce¬ dure for RT-activity determination according to the inven- tion, analyses of various amounts of AMV-RT and gene-cloned HIV-RT, respectively, were performed with the previously described immobilized templates for determining the capacity thereof. The results are shown in Figures 1-4 on the accom¬ panying drawings. Fig. 1A, B shows the time dependence of substrate turn¬ over with AMV-RT (Fig. 1A) and partially purified HIV-RT (Fig. IB) with primer-modified Sepharose^-prA gel as immobi¬ lized template. The available 125 I-IUdRTP was about 230,000 cpm per tube, and the 1/3200 dilution of AMV-RT corresponds to 0.28 units of enzyme. From Fig. 1A it appears that a linear incorporation with time was achieved with low enzyme amounts while most substrate was incorporated already after a short time with an excess of AMV enzyme. The results shown i Fig. 1A also indicate that enough template as compared t IUdRTP substrate was present on the matrix. Fig. 1C illustrates the time dependence of substrat turnover with AMV-RT using prA bound to Norwegian magneti beads as immobilized template. The available - 1 * 25 1-IUdRTP wa approximately 103,000 cpm per tube, and the 1/1600 dilutio of AMV-RT corresponds to 0.56 units of enzyme. Fig. 2A, B illustrates the relation between AMV-R amount and catalytic activity when using prA-Sepharose® (Fig 2A) or prA-Norwegian magnetic beads (Fig. 2B) as immobilize template. The available 125 I-IUdRTP was approximately 230,00 and 103,000 cpm per tube for Fig. A and Fig. B, respectively and the 1/1600 dilution of AMV-RT corresponds to 0.56 unit of enzyme. It will appear from these figures that the sub strate turnover was proportional to the enzyme amount over wide range as long as an excess of substrate was present. Fig. 3A shows the relation between the concentration o primer (odT 2_i8) and catalytic activity of AMV-RT when usin prA-Norwegian magnetic beads. 3.5 units of AMV-RT were use per tube. The 1/100 dilution of primer corresponds to 0.5 μ per tube. As appears from the figure no enzyme reaction wa obtained in the absence of primer. Fig. 3B shows a corresponding experiment performed wit the use of AMV-RT (7.5 units/tube) and prA coupled to Sepha rose®. Fig. 4A, B shows the effect of concentration of immobi lized template at constant template/primer ratio when usin primer-modified prA-Sepharose® (Fig. 4A) or prA-Norwegia magnetic beads (Fig. 4B) . The available 125 I-IUdRTP wa approximately 600,000 cpm per tube, and approximately 2. units of AMV-RT were used per tube. The 1/1 amount of modi fied prA-Sepharose® corresponds to 50 μl of gel per tube while the 1/1 amount of prA-Norwegian magnetic beads corre sponds to 4xl0 7 beads per tube. As appears from Fig. 4B th tem late/primer amount was rate-limiting with incorporatio of low substrate amounts at all tested concentrations o Norwegian beads, while Fig. 4A shows that a saturated syste was achieved at about 25 μl of modified prA-gel per assay tube. Effect of crude clinical specimens and lymphocyte extracts in the standard method of the invention To demonstrate the difficulties in determining RT-acti¬ vity directly upon crude clinical specimens and lymphocyte extracts with the standard method of the invention, and thus also with the previously known methods based upon the use of a free template, the following experiments were performed on extracts and supernatants from PBL cultures. The experiments were carried out by mixing the samples with a suitable amount of purified AMV-RT, and then analysing the RT-activity with the previously described standard method for RT-activity determination according to the invention using prA-Sepharose® template. The results are shown in Table 1 which gives the recovered percentage of AMV-RT activity in relation to assay time. Table 1 Recovery of AMV-RT activity (%) after Type of % sample in over-night sample assay mixture 1-2 h incubation Control 100 100 Medium from PBL cultures c803 50 c808 50 c809 50 c801 50 c748 50 Extract from PBL cultures c803 50 c808 50 C809 50 c801 50 c748 50 Human serum Tk7485 30 Tk9232 30 Tkl2310 30 pi 10 pi 50 P2 10 p2 50 n.d. = not determined As appears from Table 1 above the PBL extracts strongly reduced the recovery of RT-activity already after a short assay time, while the long duration assay showed that the product was broken down. In contrast only one of the five supernatants from uninfected cell cultures had a significant effect on the RT recovery. The attempts to recover RT-activity from samples with high serum concentrations were also complicated by an un- specific background increase, probably due to protein preci¬ pitation. The experiment results show, however, that the degree of disturbance varied both with the serum concentra¬ tion and with the serum origin when sera from healthy persons and persons with different diseases were compared, as exemp¬ lified for pernicious anemia (p) in Table 1. Further, the effect of serum was of competitive nature and product de¬ struction hardly seemed to take place. Binding of RT to template in the standard and, respectively. modified method The ability of the immobilized template to bind RT was investigated in the following way: AMV-RT or HIV-RT was mixed with prA-Sepharose y and incubated for 20-90 minutes at 30°C under constant mixing, and the gel was then washed four times and the amount of bound RT determined by adding reaction mixture including primer to initiate the reaction as described above. Corre¬ sponding experiments were performed except that no washing of the gel was performed before adding the reaction mixture, i.e. equivalent to the above described standard method of the invention. The results from representative experiments with AMV-RT and gene-cloned HIV-RT are given in Table 2A below. Concerning the assay procedures in Table 2A, "direct" indicates the standard method, while "fish" indicates the modified method of the invention with an initial "fish" of RT. Table 2A As appears from Table 2A above 80->100% of the AMV-RT activity was normally recovered on the gel, as compared to the reference, while even higher activity was recovered by the affinity purification or "fish" with immobilized template when using semi-purified HIV-RT. The table also shows the effect of different incubation times for the affinity purifi¬ cation step. Time dependence for RT recovery from PBL supernatant, extract and serum Fig. 5A shows the results of experiments concerning the recovery of AMV-RT activity from cultured PBL extracts as a function of time. In the figure the unbroken lines represent the modified method comprising the fish step, while the broken lines relate to the standard method with direct assay. The experiment was performed with three different PBL extracts (C803, C808 and C809, respectively). As reference was used the corresponding amount of AMV-RT (1.8 units per tube) not mixed with PBL extract. Fig. 5B shows the corresponding result according to "fish" precedure with AMV-RT mixed into serum. The experiment was performed with 6 different serum sample mixtures consis¬ ting of 200 μl of undiluted serum with 10 μl of enzyme added (0.9 unit per tube). The recovery of AMV-RT from buffer was used as a reference. Fig. 6A, 6B show results from experiments with fish of HIV-RT from clinical specimens, viz. from supernatants of infected PBL cultures (Fig. 6A) and when using PBL extracts (Fig. 6B). A comparison was made between the standard method with direct assay (broken lines) and the modified method with fish (unbroken lines). Modified prA-Sepharose® was used as the immobilized template. To see whether the new technique was sensitive enough to detect RT activity in blood cell extracts from HIV infected persons, 5 samples and controls were analysed using direct and fish procedure with 125 I-IUdRTP and prA-Sepharose®. The results presented in Table 2B below show that RT activity could be detected both in direct and fish assay using material from HIV infected while no activity was found for the controls. Although the highest values were found wit the fish procedure, the results (Table 2B) show that distur bing factors are present as good linearity with time an sample amount was not achieved. Table 2B RT activity in blood cell extracts derived from HIV infected patients and controls. a a Product recover in "fish assa " Sample HIV infection no (+ or -) 20940 191372 9.14 10596 108016 10.19 a Values corrected for background. Value not reliable, too small values, Linearity factor; cpm time 2 divided cpm time 1. * V 4 The sample was diluted 1 to 4. From the results shown above it appears that a goo recovery was obtained both from PBL supernatants, indicatin absence of affinity disturbing factors, and from serum, sho wing that the competitive agents are not bound but may b washed away. The data for the PBL extracts show that the bul of product destroying substances is removed in the affinit step and recoveries of between 40 and 75% of the AMV-R activity were achieved. Since a substantially quantitative recovery is desi rable and since it could not be excluded that the produc destroying factors reduced the prA amount on the solid phas and in addition removed some of the RT bound to the pr template, the experiments described below were performed. MEASUREMENT OF PRODUCT-TEMPLATE DESTROYING FACTORS IN PB EXTRACTS AND INVESTIGATION OF PROTECTIVE AGENTS To measure the disturbing activities in crude specimens two different pilot systems were used. According to the first system a crude specimen was incubated with immobilized template (prA-Sepharose®) without primer for a given time followed by a thorough wash of the template, and the function of the template was then analysed by the unmodified assay procedure of the invention. According to the second system a 125 I-labeled template hybrid was produced by long duration incubation of an excess of AMV-RT with a complete reaction solution followed by a thorough wash. The removal of product from the gel was then determined for different clinical specimens. For the experiments a large batch of extracts of PBL isolated from normal human buffy coats was produced by Ficoll® gradient centrifugation. Disturbance of PBL extracts in RT activity determination The RT assay disturbing capacity of the PBL extract was tested by performing the standard as well as the modified method of the invention on a prA gel. Serial dilutions of the PBL extract (undiluted cell extract corresponds to 10 7 cells- /ml) were incubated for 240 minutes in an assay mixture with 0.28 units of AMV-RT and 300,000 cpm 125 I-IUdRTP available. The RT activity in the absence of PBL extract was measured as control. The results are shown in Figure 7. As appears from this figure the PBL extract had the capacity to disturb direct RT-measurements (the standard method) at least down to a dilution corresponding to 1.0 x 10 4 lymphocytes/ml. Using the modified assay method including an initial "fish" proce¬ dure the disturbing effect in a 140 minutes assay could be eliminated up to a PBL concentration of 7.8 x 10 4 lympho- cytes/ml. Effect of different washing procedures on RT recover y The effect of different washing procedures in the fish step on the recovery of AMV-RT activity from an extract of 1.5 x 10 5 PBL/ml was determined by measuring the recovered activity with a 240 minutes assay. The PBL concentration was chosen to give a significant disturbance of the RT activity determination after the fish step but still leave a measurab¬ le enzymatic activity. The following two washing procedures were used: Wash five times with 6. 6 times dilution in each step (procedure 1); and wash five times with 40 times dilu¬ tion in each step (procedure 2). RT in buffer and wash of the prA gel according to procedure 1 was used as control. The results are shown in Fig. 8. As appears therefrom the recove¬ red RT activity varied with the washing procedures used. The results thus show the presence of residual small amounts of disturbing factors even after five repeated washes. prA template disturbing factors in PBL extract By means of the above mentioned first pilot system the presence of prA template disturbing factors in PBL extracts was determined in the following way: A modified prA gel was preincubated 15, 30 and 70, respectively, minutes with each one of extracts from 7.8 x 10 4 PBL/ml, extracts from 1.9 x 10 4 PBL/ml, extracts from total buffy coat corresponding to 3.1 x 10 6 PBL/ml, and extracts from total buffy coat corresponding to 7.8 x 10 5 PBL/ml. Then the capacity of prA gel to function as a temp¬ late in a 240 minutes assay with 0.28 units of AMV-RT was determined after incubation and thorough wash of the gel The RT activity found with prA template incubated with buffe was used as control. The results are shown in Fig. 9. I clearly appears therefrom that the capacity of the prA gel t function as a template decreased when the preincubation tim with the PBL extract increased, which indicates the presenc of destroying enzymes. Effect of disturbing factors in PBL-extracts on RNA/DNA hybrid produced and inhibition thereof To investigate the effect of the disturbing enzymes i the PBL extract on the RNA-DNA reaction product the abov mentioned second pilot system was used. Experiments (no presented here) showed that the labeled RNA-DNA hybrid wa actually broken down as a linear function of time and th amount of PBL extract used. This pilot system was then used to study the activit degree of the disturbing enzymes and possible inhibitors Thus, the effect of reducing agent (DTE) on the activity o RNA-DNA hybrid destroying enzymes was determined by incuba ting the 125 I-labeled RNA-DNA hybrid for 240 minutes wit extracts from 2 x 10 5 PBL/ml at different DTE concentration and subsequent measurement of residual radioactivity on ge and in liquid phase, respectively. Radiolabeled hybrid incu bated in buffer was used as control. The results, shown i Fig. 10, indicate that the assay procedure should be per formed in the absence of DTE. In a corresponding manner the inhibiting effect of pr on the activity of the RNA-DNA hybrid destroying enzymes wa determined by incubating the 125 I-labeled RNA-DNA hybrid fo 240 minutes with extracts from 2 x 10 5 PBL/ml at differen prG concentrations and with radiolabeled hybrid incubated i buffer as control. The results are shown in Fig. 11 an indicate that prG is a competitive inhibitor for the reactio of the disturbing enzymes. Protection of prA template with prG As is clear from the different experiments concernin disturbing factors described above, the prA template is par¬ tially destroyed during incubation with PBL extract, probably by RNAses. This may interfere both with the recovery of RT in the fish step and the reaction rate or linearity of the following activity determination. The disturbance during the RT activity determination might also reflect the action of the same enzyme to destroy or release the reaction product, i.e. the RNA-DNA hybrid. By the fish step in the modified RT determination method according to the invention obviously most of the product destroying enzymes are eliminated, but an agent protecting the RNA-DNA hybrid would be useful to reduce the washing procedure. An essential problem is therefore to protect the prA template during the fish step. This could be done by introducing either selective physical or chemical conditions. Both the addition of direct RNAse inhibitors and the omission of substances essential for RNAse activity may thus be contemplated. Provided that the same enzyme is res¬ ponsible for the destruction of prA template and RNA-DNA hybrid, the fishing step in the RT determination procedure should, as already mentioned above, preferably be performed in the absence of DTE. Further, as is also clear from the information furnished above, prG may thus be used to protect the RNA-DNA hybrid after the fishing step in the subsequent activity determination. Since HIV-RT is previously known to have a comparatively low affinity for prG, the latter could be a possible protec¬ tive agent for the immobilized prA template. To determine the effect of different concentrations of prG on the different steps of the RT activity assay, a 75 minutes assay of the activity of purified gene-cloned HIV-RT was performed, (i) with the standard method with a direct activity determination on odT-prA gel in the presence of different concentrations of prG, and (ii) by the modified method with a preceding "fish" of HIV-RT from solutions containing different amounts of prG followed by a thorough wash of the gel, and then determina¬ tion of the bound enzyme activity in absence of prG. The results for the " direct enzyme activity determination are shown in Fig. 12A, and for the determination with a separate fishing step in Fig. 12B. From the results it is clear tha prG substantially does not disturb the RT activity during th assay but interferes with the binding of RT to prA in th fish procedure. Herefrom it may thus be concluded that pr may be useful to protect the RNA-DNA hybrid after fish, i.e to eliminate the residual RNAse activity. Determination of HIV-RT blocking antibodies The presence of HIV-RT blocking antibodies in seru samples was determined in the following way. Different dilu tions of sera from a HIV-infected and, respectively, a heal thy person were incubated at 37°C for 75 minutes with HIV-R or AMV-RT for control. The residual RT activity was the determined, (i) with immobilized template and a fishing step, and (ii) with a free template in solution, CTP, however, being added as substrate protection and with 0.5 mm spermin present. The results are shown in Fig. 13A, B. Fig. 13A thus shows the enzyme blocking capacity of serum from a HIV positive individual compared with a seru from a HIV-negative person using a HIV-RT dilution of 1/10. The serum amount required for 50% inhibition of HIV-RT cor responds to 18 ng of IgG. Fig. 13B illustrates the relation ship between the necessary amount of serum for 50% RT inhibi tion and the amount of RT in the assay. From the figure it i also clear that the HIV-positive serum does not block AMV-RT. These results demonstrate that the determination of R activity according to the present invention may be performe directly on serum due to the high sensitivity of the system. This high sensitivity is largely due to the use of l 2 5 i- IUdRTP as substrate and also upon the possibility of protec- ting the substrate with CTP in a long duration assay. Th high sensitivity obtained, which may be exemplified by th fact that only 10 ng of IgG were required in the above des cribed assay compared with 300 ng for the strongest HIV seru according to Chatterjee R. et al., J. Clin. Immunol. Vol. 7, No. 3, 1987, of course, means that a wider range of antibod titres may be obtained. A similar assay as used above, but with prA coupled t polycarbonate beads as immobilized template, was used fo screening large amounts of serum samples for HIV-1 RT bloc¬ king antibodies. A collection of 897 sera, sampled at dif¬ ferent times before and after HIV-1 infection, and as cont¬ rols sera from 200 healthy blood donors were investigated. Figure 14A shows that the specificity of RT blocking anti¬ bodies was extremely good, none among the blood donors was positive, while virtually all of the HIV-Western blot posi¬ tive sera were HIV-RT antibody positive indicating the high sensitivity in the assay. Figure 14B illustrates further the sensitivity of the above RT antibody test. The values from the HIV infected patients are distributed according to the stage of the disease. As appears from the figure almost all patients in stages 2-4 were RT antibody positive and some patients were positive already in stage 0 before being HIV positive accor¬ ding to Western blot analysis. STUDY OF DNA POLYMERASE ACTIVITY DETERMINATION Determination of activity for Klenow's enzyme By means of the above described procedure for DNA poly- merase determination with immobilized template, the activity for Klenow's enzyme on different gel templates was measured. In the assay a gel bound template produced as described above was used, (i) as such ("unprimed") and (ii) activated ("pri¬ med") by boiling 1 ml of the gel, in the presence or absence of spermidine (2 mM), with 0.4 ml of DNAse-treated DNA and wash with a high salt concentration prior to use. The DNAse- treated DNA (primer) was obtained by "nicking" 40 ml of DNA solution containing 5 mg of DNA/ml with 125 ng/ml DNAse (final concentration) at 37°C for 4k hours; the DNAse was then inactivated by heating at 70°C for 20 min., whereupon the DNA was precipitated with ethanol and KC1, washed and rediluted to 8 ml. In the determination 2 x 10 -3 and, respec¬ tively, 2 x 10 -2 units of Klenow's enzyme were used. The results are presented in the following Table 3. Table 3 * not linear due to substrate exhaustion From the table the excellent sensitivity improveme obtained with the activated template (about 10 times) m clearly be seen. Protection of 125 I-lUdRTP by CTP addition Incubation of 125 I-IUdRTP with serum in the absence template demonstrates a substrate consumption which is n due to incorporation into DNA. This may be due to the su strate being utilized by other enzymes than DNA polymeras Thus, for example, the presence in serum of several forms thymide triphosphate nucleotide hydrolase, an enzyme degr ding TTP, has been detected. It has been found that t presence of cytidine triphosphate (CTP) in the reacti mixture eliminates the template-independent degradation the substrate occurring in serum. The results from incubati of serum and substrate with 2 mM CTP over-night are shown Fig. 15A and 15B. As appears from Fig. 15A less than 10% the substrate was destroyed in the presence of 2 mM CT while more than 90% of the substrate was destroyed in t absence of CTP. However, high concentrations of CTP result in an inhibition of the serum polymerase activity, as illustrated in Fig. 15B. With 0.5 mM CTP in the reacti mixture the best total effect was obtained, and a co siderable improvement of the linearity for the incorporati of the labeled substrate was achieved. CTP may, of course, be used in all cases where it is desired to prevent degradation of the 125 I-IUdRTP substrate, provided that CTP does not disturb the desired reaction. CTP is therefore advantageously also used in the RT activity measurement, such as for HIV-RT. The invention is, of course, not limited to the above specially described embodiments, but many modifications and changes are within the scope of the general inventive concept as it is stated in the subsequent claims.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A method of quantitatively determining nucleic acid polymerase activity in a sample, comprising incubating the sample with a natural or completely or partially synthetic polynucleotide template and a reagent solution containing necessary substrates including at least one radiolabeled nucleoside triphosphate complementary to the template, sepa¬ rating the template from the substrate and measuring the radioactivity incorporated into the template, said radio- activity being substantially proportional to the polymerase activity in the sample, and wherein, when a primer is re¬ quired, the latter is either hybridized to the template from the start or added during the determination, characterized in that the template is immobilized on a car- rier, that said nucleoside triphosphate is labeled with a gamma-radiating isotope and that the measurement of the incorporated radioactivity is performed directly on the immobilized template without release thereof from the car¬ rier. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized by first incubating the sample with the immo¬ bilized template for taking up polymerase activity thereon, and after separating the template from the sample incubating the template with the reagent solution including the radio- labeled nucleoside triphosphate for determining the polyme¬ rase activity taken up by the template. 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the polyme¬ rase is reverse transcriptase, characterized in that the immobilized template is a single nucleotide chain of RNA type and that the template is hybri¬ dized with a deoxyribonucleotide primer. 4. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the polyme¬ rase is DNA polymerase, characterized in that the immobilized template is a double nucleotide chain with single strand regions or a single nucleotide chain having at least one double strand region. 5. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the polyme¬ rase is a RNA polymerase, characterized in that the template, depending on the type of RNA polymerase, is either DNA with necessary primer or RNA with necessary primer. 6. A method according to any one of claims 1-5, characterized in that said radioactive isotope is an iodine isotope, preferably -*- 25 I. 7. A method according to any one of claims 1-4 and 6, characterized in that said nucleoside triphosphate is an iodine-2'-deoxyuridine triphosphate, preferably 5-iodine-2'- deoxyuridine triphosphate. 8. A method according to any one of claims 1-7, characterized in that the immobilized template has been chemically modified in order not to be degraded by RNAses and DNAses, preferably by 2'-O-methylation, P-methylation or P- sulphonation. 9. A method according to any one of claims 1-8, characterized in that the carrier on which the template is immobilized is a gel, a microsphere, a bead or a ball. 10. A method according to any one of claims 3 or 5-9, characterized by adding one or more RNAse inhibitors, par- ticularly polyguanylic acid, to protect the template. 11. A method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized by adding one or more trinucleotides which do not take part in the polymerization reaction, but which will protect the radiolabeled substrate against degrading enzymes, particularly cytidine triphosphate. 12. Use of the method according to any one of claims 1-11 in the determination of antibodies against reverse transcriptase in a sample, particularly HIV reverse transcriptase, by incubating the sample with a defined amount of reverse tran- scriptase and then determining the residual, not antibody- blocked reverse transcriptase. 13. A kit for determining nucleic acid polymerase activity, comprising a carrier-bound template, at least one nucleoside triphosphate complementary to the template and labeled with a gamma-radiating isotope, and optionally a primer. 14. A kit according to claim 13, characterized in that said radiolabeled nucleoside triphos¬ phate is 125 I-5-iodine-2' -deoxyuridine triphosphate or a substrate analogue thereof.

Inventors: GRONOWITZ JAN-SIMON, HAGSTROEM AASA MARGARETA, KAELLANDER CLAS FREDRIK RUNESS, KARLSTROEM ROLF ANDERS, LAANGSTROEM-PERSSON ULLA M, NEUMUELLER THORD MAGNUS, WELTMAN EVA HELENA, GRONOWITZ, JAN-SIMON, HAGSTROEM, AASA, MARGARETA, KAELLANDER, CLAS, FREDRIK, RUNESSON, KARLSTROEM, ROLF, ANDERS, LAANGSTROEM-PERSSON, ULLA, M., NEUMUELLER, THORD, MAGNUS, WELTMAN, EVA, HELENA
Applicants: GRONOWITZ JAN SIM0N, KAELLANDER CLAS FREDRIK RUNESS, GRONOWITZ, JAN-SIMON, KAELLANDER, CLAS, FREDRIK, RUNESSON
Application year: 1989
Main classification: C12N9
IPC codes: C07H19, C07H21, C12Q1, G01N33