A novel Alu-long terminal repeat (LTR)-based real-time nested-PCR assay was developed to quantify integrated human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) DNA in infected cells with both accuracy and high sensitivity (six proviruses within 50,000 cell equivalents). Parallel assays for total HIV-1 DNA and two-LTR HIV-1 DNA circles allowed the synthesis and fate of the different HIV-1 DNA species to be monitored upon a single round of viral replication.

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