Lateral flow biosensors for the detection of nucleic acid.

The detection of nucleic acid is of central importance for the diagnosis of genetic diseases, infectious agents, and biowarfare agents. Traditional strategies and technologies for nucleic acid detection are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Recently, isothermal strand-displacement reaction-based lateral flow biosensors have attracted a great deal of research interest because they are sensitive, simple, fast, and easy to use. Here, we describe a lateral flow biosensor based on isothermal strand-displacement polymerase reaction and gold nanoparticles for the visual detection of nucleic acid.