Method for increasing the sensitivity of nucleic acid hybridization assays

摘要

An improvement in the sensitivity of hybridization assays for detecting polynucleotide target sequences is provided by selective dehybridization of the bound portion of the probe, separation of the dehybridized portion from the support and the residual sample, and concentrating the separated probe before detecting its presence by means of its reporter group. The concentration step can be carried out by adsorption of the dehybridized probe onto a basic ion exchange material. A displacer sequence having greater binding affinity for the target polynucleotide sequence may be used to dehybridize the bound probe portion for subsequent concentration.