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Updated: Jun 26, 2025

Open-Source Miniature Fluorimeter to Monitor Real-Time Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Reactions in Resource-Limited Settings
Published on: February 3, 2021
Sensitive fluorescence assay of chloramphenicol coupled with two-level isothermal amplification using a self-powered
Zhengwei Xiong1,2, Cun Wang1, Cheng Liu1
1Chongqing Research Station of Field Scientific Observation for Authentic Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Tree Gorges Reservoir Area, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing 400067, China.
Abstract:
Two levels of nucleic acids-based isothermal amplification normally require a long reaction time due to the low concentration of catalyst, which limits its practical application. A sensitive fluorescence assay of chloramphenicol (CAP) was developed coupled with two-level isothermal amplification using a self-powered catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA) and entropy-driven circuit (EDC). CAP can bind with its aptamer to open its closed structure. The opened hairpin can initiate self-powered CHA and EDC. The product of CHA can circularly catalyze the CHA with increasing concentration. In principle, the product of CHA plays the role of catalyst and increases with the progression of the reaction. Compared with the normal two levels of amplification, the amplification efficiency of our strategy is much higher due to the self-powered reaction by the CHA product. Thus, the reaction time is shortened to 110 min in this strategy. Moreover, the detection limit for CAP can achieve 0.1 pM and shows promising prospects for practical application.

