Figure 4.

HIV-1 EasyQ quantitation using molecular beacons. Real-time HIV-1 quantitation is based on the presence of a single calibrator (Qa) of known RNA concentration, which is co-extracted and co-amplified with the patient sample. Algorithms based on multiple parameters (including internal calibrator values, kinetics of the assay, molecular-beacon binding, time to detection, and fluorescence units) determine the number of wild-type HIV-1 RNA copies in the patient sample. (Figure reprinted with permission of bioMérieux, Inc., Durham, NC.)