The design of DNA machines is straightforward but requires some experience in designing hybridization probes or functional DNA nanostructures. It is appropriate to keep the analyte fragment as short as possible to diminish the number of possible secondary structures and simplify DNM invasion to the secondary structure. The CG content should preferably be below 60% to avoid stable intramolecular structures. Successful assembly of the DNM is achieved at slow cooling rates. In some cases, DNMs can be spontaneously assembled in the tube, and the annealing step can be eliminated. DNM assembly can be performed in a thermal cycler with 0.1-0.3 °C/min or in large volumes of cooling water. In the case of improper DNM assembly, we suggest slowing down the temperature change during the annealing step.
To measure the LOD, at least seven analyte concentration points are needed: the 0 pM analyte concentration, which is F-sub + DNM, and six different analyte concentrations, for example, in the range of 1 nM to 1 pM to observe the linear dependence (Figure 2B). Often, more than seven concentration points were used for higher accuracy. For each concentration point, three technical trials (50 µL each) should be made. Therefore, the total volume for each concentration was 160 µL (10 µL excess, considering the pipette error).
The DNM technique presents higher sensitivity for SNVs than other hybridization-based systems. High selectivity to SNV can be relevant for certain objectives, such as identification of point mutations associated with bacterial genotyping22 or the selection of heterozygotes in plants25. Non-specific analytes would require the same experimental procedure. To avoid any incomprehension of SNV to a low concentration of analyte, we suggest comparing the signal of the experimental unknown analyte with that of signal of a known fully complementary analyte of the same concentration.
The method can be successfully applied to ssDNA, miRNA, folded RNA, or dsDNA amplicons. Long RNA or dsDNA fragments, especially the CG-rich, may require DNM equipped with 4-6 analyte-binding arms, while two analyte-binding arms are sufficient for single-stranded analytes with an unstable secondary structure (ΔG folding above -10 kcal/mol). The method can be applied for the detection of PCR, SDA, or LAMP amplicons. DNM can be used for amplification-free detection of rRNA in boiled samples of bacterial culture without isolating total RNA22,34,35. The technique might not work well with concentrations as low as the femtomolar level and with dsDNA fragments, whose CG content in the flanking regions is higher than 65%. The CG content can be estimated, for example, with the Biologics CG content calculator36. We suggest adding hook parts37 to the DNM designs to increase the sensitivity or transform the dsDNA into ssDNA in cases of high CG content. Another limitation of the method is that the DNMs are sensitive to the quality of the samples, so the nucleic acids are to carefully purified. The same applies to the quality of the oligonucleotide sequences of DNMs. It is, therefore, suggested that the stability and purity of every oligonucleotide supply be verified. In comparison to conventional amplification techniques, the DNMs' design requires skills and, by the date of the article release, is almost entirely manual. The DNMs need some preliminary tests on synthetic fragments before subjecting them to actual DNA or RNA samples, thus increasing the overall duration of the test-system development.
The method is versatile and can adopt different types of reporter probes. It can be multiplexed38, and the technique can be transformed into a colorimetric version if the F-sub is replaced with a G-quadruplex-forming substrate39. The presence of polymerase is associated with errors in the strand growth; hence, this method is advantageous over conventional real-time PCR and digital PCR as well as other nuclease-dependent techniques, such as SHERLOCK and DETECTR, due to the lack of perishable protein enzymes and the robust and straightforward detection procedure40,41.