Quantitative Epstein Barr Virus PCR Rapid Aassay
Background
- Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a human herpes virus, is ubiquitous in humans. Antibodies to polypeptides of the virus are present in over 80% of human serum samples from the United States and in even higher percentages from populations in Asia and Africa.
- The virus is responsible for infectious mononucleosis, a benign proliferation of infected B-lymphocytes in Western countries, and is implicated in Burkitt's lymphoma in Africa and nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Asia. EBV can also cause acute and rapidly progressive lymphoproliferative disease in severely immune compromised patients.
- Because immunosuppression is necessary to maintain the function of transplanted organs, transplant patients are all at risk of developing EBV infection and, thus, post-tran plant lymphoproliferative disorder. This is particularly severe in patients less than 5 years of age, since these patients have not yet been exposed to EBV and do not have a natural immunity to the virus.
- Nationally, there are between 450-500 liver transplants in pediatric patients. In those patients under 14 months of age, approximately 75% of them develop EBV infections. These numbers do not include bone marrow, kidney, heart and lung transplants in pediatric patients.
- Although there is a lower incidence of EBV lymphoproliferative complications in adult transplant patients, there is a clinically significant incidence of this disease in these patients as well. Demand for this kind of patient monitoring, therefore, is high.
- Currently, there are a few recognized labs that provide quantitative EBV analyses. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an accurate and sensitive method for the diagnosis and quantitation of Epstein-Barr virus infection in a clinical specimen.
Description of Current Technology
Developed at Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation (CCRF) by Pamela Groen and David Witte, this invention relates generally to novel compositions and methods for detecting the presence of viruses that frequently infect humans and are associated with the development of human disease. More particularly, the invention is directed to an accurate and sensitive method for the diagnosis and quantitation of EBV infection using specific oligonucleotides as primers to amplify particular regions of the genome of the virus. EBV specific oligonucleotides may be used in the subsequent detection of the amplified regions of DNA. The advantage of the present invention, therefore, is the utilization of specific nucleic acid sequences (oligonucleotides) useful as primers and/or probes in the detection of EBV. Also, the present technology is directed at detecting the presence of EBV wherein the oligonucleotides may be used to amplify target nucleic acid sequences of an EBV contained within a clinical specimen. By using the oligonucleotides and the methods of the present invention, as few as one to ten copies of the EBV genome may be detected. Appropriate US and foreign patent applications have been filed.
Objective
The CCRF is seeking a corporate partner to develop and market a clinically useful PCR rapid assay utilizing this technology.
Contact
To receive further confidential information regarding this technology, please contact:
Keith W. Johnson, J.D.
Intellectual Property & Venture Development
Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation
3333 Burnet Avenue
Mail Location Code 7032
Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039
Phone: 513-636-1259
Fax: 513-636-8453
E-mail: keithw.johnson@cchmc.org
Related Study Information
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