MEASURING VIRAL REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE ACTIVITY

摘要

In clinical settings as well as in a drug-discovery context, the impact of an agent that may affect reverse transcriptase (RT) can be measured and even quantified by bringing a sample, which may contain an RT, into contact with an RNA template, a primer complementary to the RNA template, and appropriate oligonucleotide-specific primers, under conditions such that they react, in the presence of RT, to form a cDNA product in inverse proportion to the effect of the agent. The amount of any resultant cDNA product then can be measured. The approach is readily implemented as a real-time, quantitative kinetic assay for RT activity.