Discrimination between different types of human adeno-associated viruses in clinical samples by PCR.

Persistent infection of human tissues with the helper virus-dependent parvovirus, adeno-associated virus (AAV) was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primer pairs detecting AAV types 2, 3 or 5. In order to develop PCR protocols which discriminate between the different serotypes of AAV, the DNA of AAV-5 was sequenced partially and compared with the published sequences of AAV-2 and -3. Type specific oligonucleotides and specific probes which allow the distinction between human AAV types by PCR are described.