Study on different mnipool methods for detection of hepatitis C virus nucleic acid

  Objective   To develop the minipool technology for detection of hepatitis C virus nucleic acid as a screening strategy of molecular epidemiology.

  Methods   The use of fluorescence polymerase chain reaction determined the contents of hepatitis C virus cDNA in different minipool groups that minipools were formed in the stage of viral RNA extraction.The tests of individual sera were taken as the control group.

  Results   It was found that the content of HCV cDNA for extraction minipool group had no difference from that of the control group(P>0.05), but the content of HCV cDNA for reverse transcription group and extraction and reverse transcription group was lower than that of the control group(P < 0.05)and weak positive sample missed the detection.

  Conclusion   The minipool in the extraction stage was superior to the minopool in the reverse tanscription stage for detection of HCV cDNA.