Serum treatment before the amplification reaction is major limiting step and involves a high risk of contamination between samples. Microwaves have been previously applied to in situ hybridization far DNA denaturation of cellular slides. The hypothesi...
Serum treatment before the amplification reaction is major limiting step and involves a high risk of contamination between samples. Microwaves have been previously applied to in situ hybridization far DNA denaturation of cellular slides. The hypothesis was made that microwaves could also act as a denaturing or chaotropic agent for HBV or certain serum components. We attempted to developed a simple and rapid microwave irradiation treatment of serum samples which enables direct PCR on dessicated serum. After microwave treatment, a higher sensitivity is obtained for HBV-DNA PCR Protoporphyrin ring or polysaccharides such as heparin have been described as inhibiting the PCR Microwave treatments diminated a potential source of inhibitors in the PCR assay. This result indicates that PCR detection of HBV-DNA can be improved by using microwave treatment of sample.