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US 5,958,676 AGranted
Genetically engineered cell lines for detecting infectious herpesvirus and methods therefor
AssigneeWashington University
InventorPaul D. Olivo
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AssigneeWashington University
InventorPaul D. Olivo
Estimating the term…
A diagnostic assay for detecting the presence of an infectious herpesvirus in a specimen and a genetically engineered cell line for use in such assay are disclosed. The cell line used in the assay expresses a reporter gene only if infectious herpesvirus is present in the specimen. The assay involves inoculating a DNA-transfected cell line with a specimen suspected of containing a herpesvirus, allowing a sufficient period of time for the herpesvirus infectious cycle to proceed, and detecting and quantifying the number of herpesvirus-infected cells to determine the number of infectious herpesvirus virions in the specimen. The cell line is a DNA-transfected cell line susceptible to infection by a herpesvirus which is stably transformed with a chimeric gene comprising a herpesvirus inducible promoter and a gene coding for an enzyme, the expression of the enzyme being dependent upon and quantitatively proportional to the presence of herpesvirus. A kit for such assay is also provided.
An in vitro diagnostic method to detect infectious Human Cytomegalovirus in a specimen, said method comprising the steps of:
A genetically engineered cell line stably transformed with a sequence of DNA containing a beta-gene promoter sequence from Human Cytomegalovirus wherein said promoter sequence is operably linked to a reporter gene, the expression of the reporter gene being nonconstitutive and dependent upon the presence of Human Cytomegalovirus.
A kit for assaying for the presence of infectious Human Cytomegalovirus in a specimen, said kit comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.