Microfluidic-based fluorescence enhancement of silica-embedded carbon dots for direct detection and quantification of unamplified HCV RNA in clinical samples

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is an asymptomatic chronic infection with serious clinical consequences. Timely and sensitive detection of HCV RNA is critical for infection control, treatment response follow up. While current technologies, such as PCR or isothermal amplification-based strategies, are specific, they are expensive, labor intensive, time consuming limiting their use in field and small laboratories.