Effect of oxymatrine on the replication cycle of hepatitis B virus in vitro

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of intracellular covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), relaxed circular DNA (rcDNA) and design of PCR primers and probes. When rcDNA is detected by primer set CCP1 and CCP2, new strand extension priming by CCP1 or CCP2 will cease at the site of the nick in the minus strand or gap in the plus strand, respectively, and no PCR product is generated. Therefore primer set CCP1 and CCP2 will preferentially amplify cccDNA and not (or to a lesser extent) rcDNA. Primer set RCP1 and RCP2 can amplify both cccDNA and rcDNA.