A PCR-free colorimetric strategy for visualized assay of telomerase activity

A novel DNA-AuNPs based colorimetric sensor is presented for the analysis of telomerase. With enzyme-aided cyclic amplification using nicking endonuclease, linker DNAs were largely consumed, which greatly enhanced the sensitivity of the method. The proposed PCR-free strategy doesn't require complicated thermal-cycling procedure, which could be extended to a high-throughput clinical detection.215