Use of internal standard RNA molecules for the RT-PCR amplification of the faeces-borne RNA viruses

The diagnostic system based on reverse transcription (RT)-PCR has been used widely for the detection of viral genomes of faecal-borne RNA viruses. However, faecal specimens often produce both false positive and false negative results. Therefore, there is a need for a diagnosis procedure that can control for 'false-results'. In this study, an internal standard RNA that can serve as a non-competitive positive template was developed and used directly to detect faecal-borne RNA viruses without noticeable competitive inhibition of the target viral genome. These results suggest that the internal standard RNA is a useful standard molecule when undertaking diagnostic qualitative RT-PCR procedures for enteroviruses and related faecal-borne RNA viruses. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.