Patent ID: 6958210

Claim:
A method for detecting the presence or absence of HSV in a biological sample from an individual, said method comprising: performing at least one cycling step, wherein a cycling step comprises an amplifying step and a hybridizing step, wherein said amplifying step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of HSV DNA polymerase primers to produce an HSV DNA polymerase amplification product if an HSV HSV DNA polymerase nucleic acid molecule is present in said sample, wherein said pair of HSV DNA polymerase primers comprises a first HSV DNA polymerase primer and a second HSV DNA polymerase primer, wherein said first HSV DNA polymerase primer comprises the sequence 5′-GCT CGA GTG CGA AAA AAC GTT C-3′ (SEQ ID NO:1), wherein said hybridizing step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of HSV DNA polymerase probes, wherein the members of said pair of HSV DNA polymerase probes hybridize to said amplification product within no more than five nucleotides of each other, wherein a first HSV DNA polymerase probe of said pair of HSV DNA polymerase probes is labeled with a donor fluorescent moiety and wherein a second HSV DNA polymerase probe of said pair of HSV DNA polymerase probes is labeled with a corresponding acceptor fluorescent moiety; and detecting the presence or absence of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between said donor fluorescent moiety of said first HSV DNA polymerase probe and said acceptor fluorescent moiety of said second HSV DNA polymerase probe, wherein the presence of FRET is indicative of the presence of HSV in said biological sample, and wherein the absence of FRET is indicative of the absence of HSV in said biological sample; said method further comprising: performing at least one cycling step, wherein said cycling step comprises an amplifying step and a hybridizing step, wherein said amplifying step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of TK primers to produce a TK amplification product if an HSV TK nucleic acid molecule is present in said sample, wherein said pair of TK primers comprises a first TK primer and a second TK primer, wherein said first TK primer comprises the sequence 5′-CAC GCT RCT GCG GGT TTA TAT AGA-3′ (SEQ ID NO:7), wherein R is A or G, and wherein said second TK primer comprises the sequence 5′ -TTG TTA TCT GGG CGC TMG TCA TT-3′ (SEQ ID NO:8), wherein M is A or C, wherein said hybridizing step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of TK probes, wherein the members of said pair of TK probes hybridize within no more than five nucleotides of each other, wherein a first TK probe of said pair of TK probes is labeled with a donor fluorescent moiety and wherein a second TK probe of said pair of TK probes is labeled with a corresponding acceptor fluorescent moiety; and detecting the presence or absence of FRET between said donor fluorescent moiety of said first TK probe and said acceptor fluorescent moiety of said second TK probe upon hybridization of said pair of TK probes to said targets.