Plasmonic and label-free real-time quantitative PCR for point-of-care diagnostics

In response to the world’s medical community need for accurate and immediate infectious pathogen detection, many researchers have focused on adapting the standard molecular diagnostic method of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to point-of-care (POC) applications. PCR technology is not without its shortcomings; current platforms can be bulky, slow, and power-intensive. Although there have been some advances in microfluidic PCR, a simple-to-operate and fabricate PCR device is still lacking. In the first part of this paper, we introduce a compact plasmonic PCR thermocycler in which fast DNA amplification is derived from efficient photothermal heating of colloidal reaction mixture containing gold nanorods (AuNRs) by a small-scale vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Using this method, we demonstrate 30 cycle-assay time of sub-ten-minute for successful Chlamydia Trachomatis DNA amplification in 20 µL total PCR sample volume. In the second part, we report an ultrasensitive real-time amplicon detection strategy which is based on cycle-by-cycle monitoring the 260 nm absorption of PCR reaction. This was accomplished by irradiating the PCR sample using a UV LED and collecting the transmitted optical power by a photodetector. UV absorption dependency on the nucleotides’ structural degree of freedom gives rise to distinctive features in the shape of UV amplification curves for the determination of PCR results; thus, circumventing the need for the complicated design of target-specific probes or intercalating fluorophores. This amplicon quantification method has a high detection sensitivity of one DNA copy. This is the first demonstration of a compact plasmonic thermocycler combined with a real-time fluorophore-free quantitative amplicon detection system. The small footprint of our PCR device stems from hardware miniaturization while abundant sample volume facilitates highly sensitive detection and fluid-handling required for in-field sample analysis; thereby making it an excellent candidate for POC molecular diagnostics.