[Detection of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) DNA by polymerase chain reaction using nonradioactive probe...

We compared the results obtained with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and virus isolation from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in HIV seropositive and seronegative persons. Three primer pairs of SK38/39 (gag). SK29/30 (LTR) and SK68/69 (env) were used in the amplification of the HIV DNA sequences, and KM29/38 (beta-globin) was used as the inner control. The PCR-positive rate among the virus-isolation-positive persons was SK38/39:100% (22/22), SK29/30:95.5% (21/22) and SK68/69:90.0% (20/22). The PCR-positive rate among the virus-isolation-negative persons was SK38/39:60% (6/10), SK29/30:60% (6/10) and SK68/69:80% (8/10), and two subjects were PCR-negative with all primer pairs. We could not detect HIV DNA from seronegative samples, and all subjects were positive with the inner control. Each primer pair expressed a different PCR-positive rate. There are possible explanations for the low PCR-negative rate on virus-isolation negative-subjects that the number of infected cell was rare or infected HIV contained genetic variations or deletions. We considered that the results of PCR correlated with the character of HIV as infectivity.