Nucleic acid quantification using nicking-displacement, rolling circle amplification and bio-bar-code mediated triple-amplification

In the present study, an inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)-based triple-amplification system, by combination of nicking-displacement, rolling circle amplification (RCA) and bio-bar-code probes, was fabricated for the detection of DNA target. By using this system, hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA target down to 3.2 x 10(-17) M was detected by DNA probes labeled with Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). Single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes can also be effectively discriminated. In addition, we proved that this strategy is capable of detecting the target in complicated biological samples and holds great potential application in biomedical research. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.