American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) administration does not affect performance of the Roche COBAS Ampliprep/Taqman HIV-1 RNA assay

• Published in: BMC complementary and alternative medicine Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 427
• Main Authors: Bakshi, Rahul P, Brown, Todd T, Simmons, Antoine, Yuan, Chun-Su, Bauer, Brent A, Sloan, Jeff A, Andrade, Adriana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 31.10.2014; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Alternative medicine; complement; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - pharmacology; Herbs; HIV; HIV Infections - diagnosis; HIV Infections - virology; HIV Reverse Transcriptase - antagonists & inhibitors; HIV Reverse Transcriptase - genetics; HIV-1 - drug effects; HIV-1 - enzymology; HIV-1 - genetics; HIV-1 - isolation & purification; Human immunodeficiency virus; Human immunodeficiency virus 1; Humans; Medical research; Panax - chemistry; Panax quinquefolius; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic - economics; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - instrumentation; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Reverse Transcription - drug effects; RNA; RNA, Viral - blood; RNA, Viral - genetics; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Studies
• ISSN: 1472-6882; 1472-6882
• DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-427

Previous data indicate that purified components of ginseng can inhibit HIV reverse transcriptase in vitro, suggesting that ginseng components in plasma may interfere with HIV-1 RNA detection assays. Pre- and post-dose plasma from three volunteers dosed with 3000 mg American ginseng was spiked with HIV and analyzed by the Roche COBAS Ampliprep/Taqman v2.0 HIV-1 RNA assay. Presence of American ginseng had no significant effect on measured HIV-1 RNA concentration. Variation within pre- and post-dose plasma pair was insignificant and within assay performance limits. Plasma from subjects dosed with 3000 mg American ginseng does not interfere with the Roche COBAS Ampliprep/Taqman v2.0 HIV-1 RNA assay. This implies that in vitro inhibition of HIV reverse transcriptase by American ginseng components is unlikely to be clinically relevant.