Detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) Antisense Protein (ASP) RNA Transcripts in Patients by Strand-Specific RT-PCRAntonio Mancarella 1, Francesco A. Procopio 1, Tilmann Achsel 2, Elisa De Crignis 3, Brian T. Foley 4, Giampietro Corradin 5, Claudia Bagni 2, Giuseppe Pantaleo 1, Cecilia Graziosi 1
1Division of Immunology and Allergy, Lausanne University Hospital, 2Department of Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Lausanne, 3Department of Biochemistry, Erasmus Medical Center, 4Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratories, 5Department of Biochemistry, University of Lausanne
RNA hairpins and loops can function as primers for reverse transcription (RT) in absence of sequence-specific primers, interfering with the study of overlapping antisense transcripts. We have developed a technique able to identify strand-specific RNA, and we have used it to study HIV-1 antisense protein ASP.
