Patent ID: 7087375

Claim:
A method for determining the AZT susceptibility of a test HIV-1 RT enzyme, comprising: a) providing a reaction well with the following reaction components comprising: i. at least one template for an HIV-1 RT enzyme; ii. at least one primer; iii. at least one detectable dNTP substrate; iv. AZT; and v. at least one compound chosen from ATP at a final concentration in the range of from about 1.5 mM to about 6 mM in the reaction well or pyrophosphate at about the physiological concentration in the reaction well; b) performing an enzymatic kinetics assay by adding to the reaction well the test HIV-1 RT enzyme; c) measuring the amount of the detectable dNTP substrate bound to the template; d) repeating steps a) through c), replacing the test HIV-1 RT enzyme with a control HIV-1 RT enzyme that is known to be susceptible to AZT inhibition; and e) comparing the amount of the detectable dNTP substrate measured from step c) with that from step d); wherein the test HIV-1 RT enzyme is identified to be AZT resistant when the amount of the detectable dNTP substrate measured from step c) is more than that from step d); and the test HIV-1 RT enzyme is identified to be AZT susceptible when the amount of the detectable dNTP substrate measured from step c) is less than or equal to that from step d).