
pmid: 35078139
Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) has been recognized as a promising isothermal amplification method for nucleic acid detection. However, the digital format of RPA is still challenging to implement due to its MgOAc-initiated reaction feature and the inherent non-specific amplification. Here we develop a Picoinjection Aided Digital reaction unLOCKing (PADLOCK) approach utilizing droplet microfluidics to achieve droplet digital RPA (ddRPA) for absolute nucleic acid quantification. By coupling a microfluidic picoinjector with a droplet generator, the reaction initiator MgOAc is dosed into droplets containing MgOAc-deprived RPA master mix for controlled digital reaction unlocking, which completely circumvents premature amplification. The discretization of the targets to a single-molecule level in confined droplets endows absolute quantification of the copy number. Coupled with CRISPR/Cas13a sensing, the ddRPA demonstrates single molecule detection ability within 30 min with significantly enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio>6) and uniform fluorescence signal reporting, facilitating the precise quantification of nucleic acids. Furthermore, the utility of the PADLOCK-CRISPR assay has been validated with 22 clinical samples, which generated results in 100% concordance with qPCR. We believe the coupling of droplet microfluidic technology with digital RPA will pave the way towards ultrasensitive and precise nucleic acid quantification.
Droplet microfluidics, Recombinases, Digital quantification, Nucleic Acids, Microfluidics, Picoinjection, Biosensing Techniques, Diagnostics, Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques, RPA
Droplet microfluidics, Recombinases, Digital quantification, Nucleic Acids, Microfluidics, Picoinjection, Biosensing Techniques, Diagnostics, Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques, RPA
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