Patent ID: 8658361

Claim:
A method of detecting at least one target nucleic acid, the method comprising: (a) providing a sample comprising or suspected of comprising said target nucleic acid; (b) providing at least one set of two or more capture probes capable of hybridizing to said target nucleic acid; (c) providing: (i) an amplifier capable of hybridizing to a label probe; (ii) a preamplifier capable of hybridizing to the amplifier and capable of hybridizing to said set of two or more capture probes, wherein the preamplifier:amplifier ratio is between 1:1-16, between 1:2-10, or between 1:2-5; (iii) a label probe, wherein the label probe is conjugated to a horse radish peroxidase (HRP) molecule; and (iv) a plurality of tyramide-fluorophore molecules, or a plurality of tyramide-biotin or tyramide-hapten molecules and detection labels which are capable of detecting said tyramide-biotin or tyramide-hapten molecules, wherein said tyramide is capable of reacting with said HRP molecule; (d) hybridizing said set of two or more capture probes to said target nucleic acid; (e) capturing the preamplifer, amplifer and label probe to said set of two or more capture probes, thereby capturing the label probe to said target nucleic acid; and (f) detecting the presence, absence, or amount of the fluorophore or detection label associated with the captured label probe.