A lateral flow assay for quantitative detection of amplified HIV-1 RNA.

ABSTRACT: Although the accessibility of HIV treatment in developing nations has increased dramatically over the past decade, viral load testing to monitor the response of patients receiving therapy is often unavailable. Existing viral load technologies are often too expensive or resource-intensive for poor settings, and there is no appropriate HIV viral load test currently available at the point-of-care in low resource settings. Here, we present a lateral flow assay that employs gold nanoparticle probes and gold enhancement solution to detect amplified HIV RNA quantitatively. Preliminary results show that, when coupled with nucleic acid sequence based amplification (NASBA), this assay can detect concentrations of HIV RNA that match the clinically relevant range of viral loads found in HIV patients.

SUBMITTER: Rohrman BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3448666 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature