This invention relates to selective detection of human rhinovirus (HRV) in biological media. Specifically, this invention discloses a real-time TaqMan RT-PCR assay targeting the 5'-noncoding region of the HRV genome. This is a one-step, real-time nucleic acid assay that offers rapid, sensitive, and quantitative results. The assay is validated against all 100 recognized HRV prototype strains.

HRV is the most frequent cause of the common cold. From a clinical standpoint, diagnosis of HRV infection is quite difficult as the related symptoms can be caused by other agents as well. Additionally, laboratory detection of HRV is challenging as HRV exhibits extreme antigenic variability and certain strains cannot be maintained by cell culture.