US 5,919,625 A · Ribonuclease resistant viral RNA standards

Abstract

The present invention is directed to the process of creating a recombinant nucleic acid standard which is resistant to ribonuclease digestion and is non-infectious. A single strand of recombinant nucleic acid is encapsidated by bacteriophage proteins. The recombinant nucleic acid is a hybrid sequence encoding bacteriophage proteins and a specific non-bacteriophage sequence. A non-bacteriophage RNA sequence can be used as an RNA standard to help quantify the number of RNA molecules in an unknown sample. The recombinant RNA in its packaged form is highly resistant to ribonucleases, insuring that the RNA standard is not compromised by inadvertent ribonuclease contamination. These ARMORED RNA.TM. standards are ideal as RNA standards for the quantification of RNA viruses such as HIV and HCV from human body fluids such as blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

Claims41

Dependent claims

A method of assaying for the presence of an RNA of interest in a sample, comprising:

1) obtaining a sample to be assayed;
2) obtaining a ribonuclease resistant RNA standard comprising, encapsidated in a bacteriophage viral coat protein, an RNA segment comprising a segment encoding a sequence that serves as a standard in detection or quantification of the RNA of interest;
3) admixing the sample with the RNA standard;
4) isolating RNA from the admixture;
and
5) assaying for the presence of the RNA with a method comprising testing for the presence of the segment encoding a sequence that serves as a standard in detection or quantification of the RNA of interest as a quantitative or qualitative standard in determining the presence or quantity of the RNA of interest.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Ribonuclease resistant viral RNA standards

Life of this patent

Ribonuclease resistant viral RNA standards

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims41