Purpose/Principle

Quantitative HHV-6 DNA PCR can be used to diagnose primary infections, track the course of infection, and monitor response to treatment.
In this assay, DNA is extracted from patient samples and subject to real-time PCR amplification using primers and a dual-labeled fluorescent probe directed against a sequence of the HHV-6 U67 gene. The product is detected using the 5’ – nuclease methodology and quantitated by extrapolation to a standard curve of log10 dilutions of a plasmid containing the target sequence. The assay is linear across six orders of magnitude and can detect as few as 2.5 copies per reaction. An exogenous positive control with its own set of primers and probes is co-amplified in each reaction to detect inhibition.