A Blood Drying Process for DNA Amplification

Abstract

The presence of numerous inhibitors in blood makes their use in nucleic acid amplification techniques difficult. Current methods for extracting and purifying pathogenic DNA from blood involve removal of inhibitors, resulting in low and inconsistent DNA recovery rates. To address this issue, a biphasic method is developed that simultaneously achieves inhibitor inactivation and DNA amplification without the need for a purification step. Inhibitors are physically trapped in the solid‐phase dried blood matrix by blood drying, while amplification reagents can move into the solid nano‐porous dried blood and initiate the amplification. It is demonstrated that the biphasic method has significant improvement in detection limits for bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin‐Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus using loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA). Several factors, such as drying time, sample volume, and material properties are characterized to increase sensitivity and expand the application of the biphasic assay to blood diagnostics. With further automation, this biphasic technique has the potential to be used as a diagnostic platform for the detection of pathogens eliminating lengthy culture steps.