Rapid isothermal nucleic acid amplification technologies can enable diagnosis of human pathogens and genetic variations in a simple, inexpensive, user-friendly format. The isothermal exponential amplification reaction (EXPAR) efficiently amplifies short oligonucleotides called triggers in less than 10 min by means of thermostable polymerase and nicking endonuclease activities. We recently demonstrated that this reaction can be coupled with upstream generation of trigger oligonucleotides from a genomic target sequence, and with downstream visual detection using DNA-functionalized gold nanospheres. The utility of EXPAR in clinical diagnostics is, however, limited by a nonspecific background amplification phenomenon, which is further investigated in this report. We found that nonspecific background amplification includes an early phase and a late phase. Observations related to late phase background amplification are in general agreement with literature reports of ab initio DNA synthesis. Early phase background amplification, which limits the sensitivity of EXPAR, differs however from previous reports of nonspecific DNA synthesis. It is observable in the presence of single-stranded oligonucleotides following the EXPAR template design rules and generates the trigger sequence expected for the EXPAR template present in the reaction. It appears to require interaction between the DNA polymerase and the single-stranded EXPAR template. Early phase background amplification can be suppressed or eliminated by physically separating the template and polymerase until the final reaction temperature has been reached, thereby enabling detection of attomolar starting trigger concentrations.

We present a simple, rapid method for detecting short DNA sequences that combines a novel isothermal amplification method (EXPAR) with visual, colorimetric readout based on aggregation of DNA-functionalized gold nanospheres. The reaction is initiated by a trigger oligonucleotide, synthetic in nature for this proof-of-principle study, which is exponentially amplified at 55 degrees C and converted to a universal reporter oligonucleotide capable of bridging two sets of DNA-functionalized gold nanospheres. This reaction provides >10(6)-fold amplification/conversion in under 5 min. When combined with a solution containing DNA nanospheres, the bridging reporter causes nanosphere aggregation. The resulting color change from red to dark purple or blue is enhanced through spotting the solution onto a C18 reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography plate. The reaction can easily be adapted for detection of different trigger oligonucleotides using the same set of DNA nanospheres. It permits detection of as low as 100 fM trigger oligonucleotide in under 10 min total assay time, with minimal reagent consumption and requirement for instrumentation. We expect that combining this simple, versatile assay with trigger generation from a genomic target DNA sequence of interest will be a powerful tool in the development of rapid and simple point-of-care molecular diagnostic applications.

The reaction of various organozinc pivalates with anthranils provides anilines derivatives, which cyclize under acidic conditions providing condensed quinolines. Using alkenylzinc pivalates, electron-rich arylzinc pivalates or heterocyclic zinc pivalates produces directly the condensed quinolines of which several structures belong to new heterocyclic scaffolds. These N-heterocycles are of particular interest for organic light emitting diodes with their high photoluminescence quantum yields and long exciton lifetimes as well as for hole-transporting materials in methylammonium lead iodide perovskites solar cells due to an optimal band alignment for holes and a large bandgap.