Patent ID: 9303292
Filing Date: 2016-04-05
CPC Classification: B82Y,C12Q,Y10S

Claim Text:
1. A method for detecting hepatitis C virus (HCV) comprising: contacting unamplified RNA obtained from a patient suspected of being infected with HCV with a single-stranded DNA oligotargeter that ranges in length from 19 to 31 contiguous bases and that binds to HCV RNA, for a time and under conditions sufficient for the unamplified HCV RNA and oligotargeter to hybridize, contacting a mixture of the HCV RNA and oligotargeter DNA with non-functionalized gold nanoparticles, and detecting HCV RNA in the sample when the gold nanoparticles aggregate, wherein aggregated gold nanoparticles exhibit a blue color and non-aggregated gold nanoparticles exhibit a red color.