Sensitive nucleic acid sandwich hybridization assay

摘要

Nucleic acid sandwich hybridization assays are provided that incorporate one or a combination of background reduction steps. Those steps include use of a separate capture probe and separation from immobilized capture probes by cleavage and isolation. A very sensitive assay for RNA targets includes both of those steps, plus RNA binary probes, an RNA-directed RNA ligase and amplification by an RNA-directed RNA polymerase. Kits of reagents for performing assays according to this invention are also provided.