Ultrasensitive DNA detection by cycle isothermal amplification based on nicking endonuclease and its application to logic gates

In recent years, an intense interest has grown in the DNA logic gates having high potential for computation at literally the “nano-size” level. A limitation of traditional DNA logic gates is that each target strand hybridizes with only a single copy of the probe. This 1:1 hybridization radio limits the gain of the approach and thus its sensitivity. The exponential amplification of nucleic acids has become a core technology in medical diagnostics and has been widely used for the construction of DNA sensor, DNA nanomachine and DNA sequencing. It would be of great interest to develop DNA-based logic systems with exponential amplification for the output signal. In the present study, a series of three-input DNA logic gates with the cycle isothermal amplification based on nicking endonuclease (NEase) are designed. Very low concentrations of the analytes were sufficient to initiate an autocatalytic cascade, achieving a significant improvement of the detection limit, 100-fold improvement compared to the non-autocatalytic system. This was achieved by engineering a simple and flexible biological circuit designed to initiate a cascade of events to detect and amplify a specific DNA sequence. This procedure has the potential to greatly simplify the logic operation because amplification can be performed in “one-pot”.