Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The HIV TruGene product line includes three kits: (1) a low-cost, low-resolution, high throughput screen kit that identifies 93% of the known mutations; (2) a medium-resolution kit that provides full DNA sequence data in the 3' direction; and (3) a high resolution kit that provides full duplicate A,C,G and T DNA sequence data in both the 3' and 5' directions. The product line also includes the HIV Mutation Library that rapidly locates known mutations in a sample. The HIV Library uses VGI's Gene Librarian software package and provides the research scientists with literature citations for each mutation found.
The company unveiled the new kits and software library at the 37th annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) held September 28 to October 1 in Toronto, Canada.
"We developed these kits for HIV research applications to make HIV genotyping more accurate and cost-effective, and to increase testing throughput," said John K. Stevens, chairman and chief executive officer of VGI. "With a single Clipper, users can carry out up to 64 low resolution genotypes per day, or 32 medium resolution genotypes per day or 16 high resolution genotypes per day. All three kits and our new HIV Mutation Library enable users to go from isolated DNA sample to final result in approximately three to four hours. Additionally, these three kits take advantage of VGI's Stratified Matrix technology, to further reduce assay cost and increase accuracy. Over the next six months, we will conduct beta testing of the Clipper, kits and library, and plan to have the full HIV research product line in commercial production by mid 1998."
Research has shown that HIV, like many other infectious organisms, is a highly polymorphic (genetically variable) virus, that constantly mutates within infected individuals. The virus is so variable that it is unlikely that HIV viruses isolated from any two patients will have the same DNA sequence.
Because of this rapid mutation rate, drugs used to treat HIV, while often effective for a period of time, eventually result in the selection of HIV mutants that are resistant to those drugs. Development of such resistant HIV strains frequently leads to the return of high virus levels in the patient.
Experts and on-going research have demonstrated that by genotyping HIV, it may be possible to treat individual patients by selecting drugs to which the virus has not yet developed resistance, and thus keep the virus at low levels. Genotyping methods that depend on DNA probes or chips may miss important mutations because of the unpredictable and polymorphic nature of HIV. In contrast, using DNA sequencing to genotype the virus provides high resolution read-out of the virus's DNA codes, irrespective of polymorphic variability. Viral genotyping for HIV and other infectious organisms via high resolution DNA sequencing with the Clipper and these newly introduced kits are cost-competitive compared to other genotyping methods and provide for high accuracy.
Visible Genetics Inc. develops, manufactures and markets high performance, automated DNA sequencing systems for the analysis of genes linked to disease. The company's OpenGene system employs stratified DNA testing and single-tube, single-step sequencing methods to significantly reduce the time and cost involved in finding and identifying gene-causing mutations.
SOURCE Visible Genetics Inc.
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