Rapid, Optical Nucleic Acid Probes for HIV DNA and RNA

The development of diverse nucleic probes is generating excitement because of their potentialas diagnostic reagents. These tools promise to enhance the diagnosis of infectious diseases, geneticdisorders, malignancies, and cancer. However, the extension of laboratory breakthroughs to routineclinical diagnostics has produced great disappointment. The reasons for the failure of the transition ofthese probes from the laboratory to the clinic are threefold: inadequate sensitivity, inadequatespecificity, and inconvenience associated with the lack of user-friendly systems to monitor these probes.The proposal will develop a multi-analyze nucleic acid probe system for the detection of HIV DNA andRNA that solves these problems using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Because this detectiontechnique is direct, without complex hybridization protocols, it promises to provide rapid screening oftarget analytes with minimal skill requirements. The benefits lie not solely in its sensitive detection ofnucleic acid hybridization, but also in its ability to solve the problems plaguing SPR biosensors in general;these include inadequate specificity and inconvenience. Because of this, the proposed system also maysignificantly impact the immunodiagnostics community, where SPR sensing techniques have been underinvestigation for several years.