Document 2701
 DOCN  M94A2701
 TI    Confirmatory tests for HIV detection constructed in Latvia.
 DT    9412
 AU    Svirska R; Konicheva V; Line I; Ose V; Meldrajs J; BMC University of
       Latvia, Riga.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):244 (abstract no. PB0404). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94369874
 AB    OBJECTIVE: Blood screening of donors, risk-groups, anonymous persons was
       begun in Latvia in 1987. Due to economic difficulties the use of
       commercial confirmatory tests is limited, that is why necessity arose to
       construct our own ones. METHODS: Sera and blood samples of
       HIV-1-positive in ELISA patients were received from National AIDS
       centre. Western blotting (WB) and PCR were constructed as confirmatory
       tests. Viral material from HIV-1 producing cell lines (Jurkat-tat
       III-HIV-1, ACH-2) was used for WB. Primers from gag region of HIV-1 were
       used for PCR, DNA was extracted from patients leukocytes, negative and
       positive for HIV-1 cell cultures and cells as controls. RESULTS: The
       best virus-producing cell cultures were selected for virus production
       for WB. In ultracentrifugation procedure we lost the majority of gp
       120/160 HIV-1, that's why we used aqueous two-phase systems for
       purification of glucosylated antigens. Results were comparable with
       those got in commercial Abbott tests. False positive results in ELISA
       correlated with positive reaction in WB only for p17--we think some
       other process, non-specific for AIDS, can gives such a reaction. PCR
       with set of primers from gag gave positive results with DNA from
       HIV-positive cell cultures, as well as with DNA's of HIV-1 carriers.
       Results were confirmed by hybridisation with specific internal probe
       containing corresponding HIV-1 regions. CONCLUSIONS: Home-constructed WB
       could be used as confirmatory test in HIV screening. PCR is a valuable
       confirmatory test, specially in cases, when WB results are dubious. We
       plan to compare virus isolates circulating in Latvia with other known
       strains.
 DE    AIDS Serodiagnosis/METHODS  Blotting, Western  Comparative Study
       *Developing Countries  Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay  Human  HIV
       Seropositivity/*DIAGNOSIS/IMMUNOLOGY  HIV-1/*IMMUNOLOGY  Latvia
       Polymerase Chain Reaction  Predictive Value of Tests  *Quality
       Assurance, Health Care  MEETING ABSTRACT

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