Synthetic long oligonucleotides to generate artificial templates for use as positive controls in molecular assays: drug resistance mutations in influenza virus as an example

Abstract

Positive controls are an integral component of any sensitive molecular diagnostic tool, but this can be affected, if several mutations are being screened in a scenario of a pandemic or newly emerging disease where it can be difficult to acquire all the necessary positive controls from the host. This work describes the development of a synthetic oligo-cassette for positive controls for accurate and highly sensitive diagnosis of several mutations relevant to influenza virus drug resistance.