Los Alamos National Laboratories 1 article published in JoVE Genetics Detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) Antisense Protein (ASP) RNA Transcripts in Patients by Strand-Specific RT-PCR Antonio Mancarella1, Francesco A. Procopio1, Tilmann Achsel2, Elisa De Crignis3, Brian T. Foley4, Giampietro Corradin5, Claudia Bagni2, Giuseppe Pantaleo1, Cecilia Graziosi1 1Division of Immunology and Allergy, Lausanne University Hospital, 2Department of Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Lausanne, 3Department of Biochemistry, Erasmus Medical Center, 4Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratories, 5Department of Biochemistry, University of Lausanne RNA hairpins and loops can function as primers for reverse transcription (RT) in absence of sequence-specific primers, interfering with the study of overlapping antisense transcripts. We have developed a technique able to identify strand-specific RNA, and we have used it to study HIV-1 antisense protein ASP.