SELECTION OF PRIMERS AND THEIR USE IN POL YMERASE CHAIN-REACTION FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF INFECTION CAUSED BY HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS AND CYTOMEGALOVIRUS

The authors present the results of studies on the construction of high ly sensitive primers for rapid diagnosis of infections caused by Herpe s simplex virus (HSV) and cytomegalovirus. An oligonucleotide primer t o HSV-1 is described, which permits detection of HSV-1 DNA in infected cultures and in clinical material in dilution 10(-7), whereas the ''u niversal'' primer constructed on the basis of published data detects b oth HSV-1 and HSV-2 only in dillution 10(-4). Study of the clinical ma terial in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) vs. virus isolation in infec ted cell cultures permitted us assess the diagnostic value of this rea ction with the constructed primers as high. Use of two pairs of primer s (those designed to HSV-1 and the ''universal'') permitted a differen tial diagnosis in the PCR between HSV-1 and HSV-2 in clinical material . Highly specific oligonucleotide primers were designed for the rapid diagnosis of cytomegaloviral infection, and clinical material was inve stigated making use bf these primers.