Integration of Nucleic Acid Extraction Protocol with Automated Extractor for Multiplex Viral Detection

The isolation of nucleic acids (NA) is the preliminary step to carry out genetic studies and DNA biosensor development. The presence of inhibitors in the purified NA interferes with the downstream application. These salts and other organic contaminations particularly challenge the analytical sensitivity of DNA biosensors. The detailed study was carried out to optimize the factors which might affect viral nucleic acid purification. The results suggested that 6 M guanidinium hydrochloride salt concentration was critical for NA isolation. The inverse relation has been found in the pH of the lysis buffer and quality and quantity of NA. The NA yield was relatively stable at pH 4–5. It has been observed that the use of carrier RNA was indispensable for viral genome isolation. The addition of ethanol to lysate in 1:1 ratio greatly improved NA recovery. The elution efficiency of DNase and RNase free water, 1× TE buffer and 1× PCR buffer was compared. The carrier RNA was best eluted in DNase and RNase free water and 1× TE buffer. It was further demonstrated that this method can be automatized for high throughput detection. A simple experiment was conducted to optimize the different parameters of an automated NA extractor to simultaneously extract HBV DNA and HCV RNA. The purified NA was successfully amplified in PCR and RT-PCR to verify the reliability of the established protocol. Thus a semi-automated system for the simultaneous detection of multiple viruses has been demonstrated.