Patent ID: 6913887

Claim:
A method for detecting the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a sample, the method comprising the steps of: (a) extracting RNA from the sample; (b) contacting the RNA to a reverse transcriptase and a downstream primer having a nucleotide sequence substantially complementary to the HCV RNA sequence to create cDNA; (c) forming an amplification medium by mixing the cDNA with a thermostable polymerase, appropriate nucleoside triphosphates, a nucleic-acid-binding fluorescent entity, and the downstream primer and an, upstream primer having a nucleotide sequence substantially complementary to a target nucleic acid having the sequence represented by SEQ ID NO:1 or the complement thereof; (d) thermally cycling the amplification medium between at least a denaturation temperature and an elongation temperature, wherein the upstream and downstream primers in combination amplify the target nucleic acid represented by SEQ ID NO:1, or a section thereof, wherein where the target sequence is said section of the sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, the section may be of any length provided that the section is unique to the HCV genome; (e) illuminating the amplification medium with a selected wavelength of light that is absorbed by the fluorescent entity during the thermally cycling step; (f) determining the amount of fluorescence generated by the fluorescent entity; and (g) detecting the presence of the target nucleic acid by analyzing the amount of luminescence determined after at least one amplification cycle.