Homogenization with heat treatment: A cost effective alternative to nucleic acid extraction for herpes simplex virus real-time PCR from viral swabs

Most laboratories use expensive commercial kits to purify nucleic acids and remove PCR inhibitors that may be present in clinical specimens. In this study a simple homogenization with heat treatment of herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1/2) was shown to be equivalent to commercial kit-based nucleic acid extraction methods. With a cost of less than $1 USD per extraction, this method provides an economical, rapid, and effective method to recover HSV-1/2 DNA from swabs suitable for real-time HSV PCR.