title: Low human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) DNA burden as a major cause for failure to detect HIV-1 DNA in clinical specimens by PCR.
abstract: To determine the sensitivity of a nested PCR procedure for detecting human immunodeficiency virus type 1 DNA in clinical specimens, 553 peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples obtained from 268 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-seropositive subjects were assayed by use of two independent primer sets for each sample. Overall, 1,088 of 1,106 (98.37%) reactions were positive. Investigation of the negative reactions showed that a low viral burden in some infected subjects, rather than primer-template mismatches, was the primary cause for the false-negative PCR results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zazzi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Catucci
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Milito
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Almi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonnelli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rubino
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Valensin
mesh_terms: D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral