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Taqman-MGB nanoPCR for Highly Specific Detection of Single-Base Mutations
Zhenrui Xue1,2,3, Minli You2,3, Ping Peng1,2,3
1Department of Transfusion Medicine, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, People's Republic of China.
Purpose:
Detection of single-base mutations is important for real-time monitoring of tumor progression, therapeutic effects, and drug resistance. However, the specific detection of single-base mutations from excessive wild-type background sequences with routine PCR technology remains challenging. Our objective is to develop a simple and highly specific qPCR-based single-base mutation detection method.
Methods:
Using EGRF T790M as a model, gold nanoparticles at different concentrations were separately added into the Taqman-MGB qPCR system to test specificity improvement, leading to the development of the optimal Taqman-MGB nanoPCR system. Then, these optimal conditions were used to test the range of improvement in the specificity of mutant-type and wild-type templates and the detection limit of mutation abundances in a spiked sample.
Results:
The Taqman-MGB nanoPCR was established based on the traditional qPCR, with significantly suppressed background noise and improved specificity for single-base mutation detection. With EGFR T790M as a template, we demonstrated that our Taqman-MGB nanoPCR system could improve specificity across a wide concentration range from 10-9 μM to 10 μM and detect as low as 0.95% mutation abundance in spiked samples, which is lower than what the traditional Taqman-MGB qPCR and existing PCR methods can detect. Moreover, we also proposed an experimentally validated barrier hypothesis for the mechanism of improved specificity.
Conclusion:
The developed Taqman-MGB nanoPCR system could be a powerful tool for clinical single-base mutation detection.
