Nucleic Acid Self-Assembly Circuitry Aided by Exonuclease III for Discrimination of Single Nucleotide Variants

Robust and rapid discrimination of one base mutations in nucleic acid sequences is important in clinical applications. Here, we report a hybridization-based assay exploiting nucleic acid self-assembly circuitry and enzyme exonuclease III (Exo III) for the differentiation of single nucleotide variants (SNVs). This one-step approach combines the merits of discrimination power of competitive DNA hybridization probes (probe + sink) with catalytic amplification assisted by Exo III. The phosphorothioate bonds modified on a wild-type (WT) specific sink inhibit the Exo III digestion; thus, subsequent catalytic amplification magnifies only the intended SNV targets. The integrated assay exhibits improved SNV discrimination rather than hybridization probes relying solely on competition or amplification and enables SNV detection at 1% abundance. Two frequent cancer-driver mutation sequences (EGFR-L861Q, NRAS-Q61K) were tested. Our strategy allows simple sequence design and can easily adapt to multianalyte SNV detections.