Patent ID: 7795417

Claim:
An isolated oligonucleotide consisting of (a) R 1 —N—R 2 wherein N is an oligonucleotide selected from the group consisting of (SEQ ID NO: 20) 5′-GGCTGAAGCACTGAGAGGAC-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 21) 5′-ACAGGTTGTAGTTCGGCACC-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 42) 5′-GGGTTAACAAAGGCAAACCA-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 43) 5′-CCCTGACCTACAGCTTCAG-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 50) 5′-GGAGAGTGCAGTCTGCGATA-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 51) 5′-GTCTCCTCTAACCTCTAGTCC-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 55) 5′-ACATCCGCAGTGCCCAGAGAACATAATGGA-3′, (SEQ ID NO: 57) 5′-CCGGTAATGGTGTTAAACCAGGGCGAAAGGA-3′, 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 complement of 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 complement of said consensus sequence; (b) an isolated fragment of N as defined in (a) wherein said fragment is 10-19bases 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 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; or (e) an isolated oligonucleotide which is the full-length complement of (a), (b), (c) or (d).