Patent ID: 7385049

Claim:
An isolated oligonucleotide consisting of (a) R 1 -N-R 2 wherein N is an oligonucleotide selected from the group consisting of 5′-ATCGCGCTTGGAATAGCTTA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 10), 5′-GACAGCCGTTCCAATGATCT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 11), 5′-GACGTCCCAGAATTAGAGCGC-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 28), 5′-TCCGGCTTCTCGTACTGTCT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 29), 5′-GCCACCGGAAGTTGAGTAGA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 52), 5′-GAGACGGTTCTGAGGGCTTAC-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 53), 5′-TGGATTTGGTCTCACCAGCACTCGGATGTT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 54), 5′-ACGGGTTCACTACTACTGCATCTAGAGACA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 56), 5′-CAGGAGGACTGGGTTAACAAAGGCAAACCA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 58), and 5′-ATCACTTCGCGGCTTTGTTCACCCAGTCCT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 59); R 1 is an oligonucleotide sequence of 0-20 contiguous bases of the West Nile virus consensus sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) immediately upstream of the 5′ end of N in said consensus sequence covalently linked to N at the 5′ end, provided that when N is complementary to said consensus sequence, R 1 is selected from the sequence complementary to said consensus sequence; and R 2 is an oligonucleotide sequence of 0-20 contiguous bases of said consensus sequence immediately downstream of the 3′-end of N in said consensus sequence covalently linked to N at the 3′ end, provided that when N is complementary to said consensus sequence, R 2 is selected from the sequence complementary to said consensus sequence; (b) an isolated fragment of N as defined in (a) wherein said fragment is 10-19 contiguous bases in length; (c) R 1 -X-R 2 , wherein X is at least 10 contiguous bases of N as defined in (a), and R 1 and R 2 are as defined in (a), wherein when R 1 is present, R 2 is absent and X is selected such that the base at the 5′-end of X is the same as the base at the 5′-end of N; and when R 2 is present, R 1 is absent and X is selected such that the base at the 3′-end of X is the same as the base at the 3′-end of N; (d) an isolated oligonucleotide 10 to 71 bases in length which has at least 90% sequence identity with an oligonucleotide of(a), (b) or (c) and binds to SEQ ID NO: 1 or its complementary sequence under stringent conditions; or (e) an isolated oligonucleotide which is the full-length complementary sequence of (a), (b), (c) or (d).