Busby, E;
Whale, AS;
Ferns, RB;
Grant, PR;
Morley, G;
Campbell, J;
Foy, CA;
... Garson, JA; + view all
(2017)
Instability of 8E5 calibration standard revealed by digital PCR risks inaccurate quantification of HIV DNA in clinical samples by qPCR.
Scientific Reports
, 7
, Article 1209. 10.1038/s41598-017-01221-5.
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Abstract
Establishing a cure for HIV is hindered by the persistence of latently infected cells which constitute the viral reservoir. Real-time qPCR, used for quantification of this reservoir by measuring HIV DNA, requires external calibration; a common choice of calibrator is the 8E5 cell line, which is assumed to be stable and to contain one HIV provirus per cell. In contrast, digital PCR requires no external calibration and potentially provides ‘absolute’ quantification. We compared the performance of qPCR and dPCR in quantifying HIV DNA in 18 patient samples. HIV DNA was detected in 18 by qPCR and in 15 by dPCR, the difference being due to the smaller sample volume analysed by dPCR. There was good quantitative correlation (R2 = 0.86) between the techniques but on average dPCR values were only 60% of qPCR values. Surprisingly, investigation revealed that this discrepancy was due to loss of HIV DNA from the 8E5 cell calibrant. 8E5 extracts from two other sources were also shown to have significantly less than one HIV DNA copy per cell and progressive loss of HIV from 8E5 cells during culture was demonstrated. We therefore suggest that the copy number of HIV in 8E5 extracts be established by dPCR prior to use as calibrator.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Instability of 8E5 calibration standard revealed by digital PCR risks inaccurate quantification of HIV DNA in clinical samples by qPCR |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-017-01221-5 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01221-5 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, REAL-TIME PCR, IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1, GUIDELINES MINIMUM INFORMATION, PROVIRAL DNA, LATENT RESERVOIR, T-CELLS, QUANTITATION, INFECTION, BLOOD, CURE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Infection and Immunity UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Infection, Immunity and Inflammation Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1555329 |
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