Colorimetric detection of HIV-1 ribonuclease H activity by gold nanoparticles.

Scheme 1 . Illustration of colorimetric detection of HIV-1 RNase H activity using unmodifi ed gold nanoparticles. Acquired immune defi ciency syndrome (AIDS) is generally characterized by infection of human immunodefi ciency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Despite enormous efforts in developing antiretroviral drugs, coping with the drug resistance of HIV-1 remains a daunting task. [ 1 ] The ribonuclease H (RNase H) activity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) plays a crucial role in the viral replication cycle and degrades the RNA strand of an RNA–DNA hybrid. [ 2 ]