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Updated: Apr 20, 2026
Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
[Sensitivity of the COBAS AmpliScreen™ HIV-1 test v1.5 for HIV-1 detection]
Lucía P Gomez1, Marcos C Balangero1, Gonzalo Castro2
1Laboratorio Virus Linfotrópicos Humanos. Retrovirus: HIV y HTLV, Instituto de Virología "Dr. J. M. Vanella", Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Córdoba, Argentina; Fundación Banco Central de Sangre, Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, Córdoba, Argentina.
Abstract:
The introduction of nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAT) in blood banks was intended to reduce the residual risk of transfusion-transmitted infections. Co-circulation of a great diversity of HIV-1 variants in Argentina portrays the need to assess the sensitivity of serological and molecular assays available for their detection. In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity of the COBAS AmpliScreen™ HIV-1 Test, version 1.5 (Roche) for the detection of HIV-1 RNA in plasma samples of infected individuals from Argentina. The results of this study reveal that this technique has high sensitivity for the detection of HIV-1 RNA under assay conditions: using mini-pool testing, pools ≥ 50 RNA copies per ml achieved ≥ 92 % sensitivity, whereas in the standard procedure, samples ≥ 207 RNA copies/ml achieved 100 % sensitivity. Moreover, the COBAS AmpliScreen™ HIV-1 Test, version 1.5 (Roche) is suitable for detecting prevailing HIV-1 variants.
