THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANTIGEN CAPTURE POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION ASSAYTO DETECT AND TYPE HUMAN ENTEROVIRUSES

Antigen capture polymerase chain reaction (AC-PCR) is a technique that combines the advantages of PCR with those of antibody mediated method s, to detect and type human enteroviruses. Virus particles are capture d by specific antisera and RNA is released by heat denaturation to gen erate the substrate for reverse transcription and PCR. Use of this tec hnique results in purification of human enteroviruses from tissue cult ure and 10% faecal samples in a serotype-specific manner allowing both rapid detection and a direct correlation between serological and gene tic typing methods. The sensitivity of AC-PCR was comparable with that of PCR protocols employing a conventional organic solvent based extra ction procedure. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.