Isothermal Detection of DNA by Beacon-Assisted Detection Amplification

摘要

Nucleic acids are routinely used as biomarkers to help diagnose pathogenic infections and genetic disorders. Specific nucleic acids indicating the presence of a disease are often found in only trace amounts in a complex biological extract, so new technologies to detect a unique DNA sequence amongst the millions of nucleotides that constitute a genome are constantly in demand. Analysis of DNA is currently performed by amplifying trace amounts of a specific sequence to levels that are detectable. Several DNA amplification techniques have been developed which can be broadly divided into those that require thermal cycling and those that proceed at constant temperature (isothermal).