Patent ID: 7566532

Claim:
A method for detecting in a single assay whether a sample contains an HIV retrovirus and/or an HTLV retrovirus, the method comprising: a) preparing cDNA by reverse transcribing nucleic acids in the sample; b) ligating a first oligonucleotide linker to the cDNA to form an anchored-end cDNA; c) amplifying the anchored-end cDNA to form amplified cDNA using primers that specifically anneal to the first oligonucleotide linker; d) treating the amplified cDNA with a restriction enzyme to generate cDNA fragments; e) ligating a second oligonucleotide linker to the cDNA fragments to form anchored-end cDNA fragments; f) sequencing the anchored-end cDNA fragments using sequencing primers that specifically anneal to the second oligonucleotide linker; and g) comparing the sequences with the known nucleotide sequences of HIV and/or HTLV retroviruses to determine if the sample contained an HIV retrovirus and/or an HTLV retrovirus.