An ultrafast and portable nucleic acid detection system based on photothermal PCR and real-time fluorescence detection

The nucleic acid detection technology based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is widely used in infectious disease detection due to its excellent sensitivity and specificity. However, the drawbacks of this method include bulky instrumentation in centralized laboratories and an assay time of 1–2 h. Here, we show a portable nucleic acid detection system, successfully performing ultrafast thermocycling and real-time fluorescence detection in a glass microtubule. By using plasmonic nanoparticles, the system can achieve 30 thermocycles in ∼ 2.5 min. The nucleic acid detection efficiency of the system is comparable to that of the conventional thermocycler. The system correctly distinguished the positive and negative samples of the clinical hepatitis B virus (HBV). Overall, this study extends PCR technology to point-of-care use and provides ideas for developing new virus detection systems.