Patent ID: 6379899
Filing Date: 2002-04-30
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
A method for determining at least one target nucleic acid in a complex mixture of nucleic acids, employing a probe for each of said target nucleic acids, where said probe is characterized by having a masked RNA polymerase promoter as a single-stranded loop inhibited from initiating transcription, a template sequence 5â€² of said masked promoter complementary to said target nucleic acid and comprising a double stranded nucleic acid region portion acting to inhibit transcription, with the proviso that when said transcription is greater than about 10% of the transcription in the presence of said target sequence, a bulky group is bound to said double stranded nucleic acid region, whereby when a sequence complementary to said template binds to said template sequence, said inhibition is released, said method comprising:combining and incubating said sample, probe, an initiator comprising a sequence complementary to said, RNA polymerase and RTPs under transcriptional conditions, whereby target nucleic acid binds to said template sequence enabling transcription to produce a transcript complementary to said template, wherein said transcript further binds to said template releasing inhibition of transcription, so that the process is repeated amplifying said transcript, and analyzing said complementary nucleotide as an indication of the presence of said target nucleic acid.