Viral discovery
The isolation of novel viral genomes from serum or plasma samples presents a significant technical challenge. In the September 25 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Tobias Allander and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, USA, describe a sensitive method for identifying viruses in serum samples (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2001, 98:11609-11614).The method is based on the fact that viral genomes are generally protected from DNase degradation
Sep 26, 2001
The isolation of novel viral genomes from serum or plasma samples presents a significant technical challenge. In the September 25
The method is based on the fact that viral genomes are generally protected from DNase degradation by protein capsids and lipid envelopes. Allander
This methodology, that they named DNase-SISPA, can detect viruses at titres of less that 106 viral genome equivalents per millilitre. Allander