Quantitative Screening of Single Copies of Human Papilloma Viral DNA without Amplification

We describe a novel quantitative viral screening method based on single-molecule detection that does not require amplification. DNA of human papilloma virus (HPV), the major etiological agent of cervical cancer, served as the screening target in this study. Eight 100-nucleotide single-stranded DNA probes were designed complementary to the E6-E7 gene of HPV-16 DNA. The probes were covalently stained with Alexa Fluor 532 and hybridized to the target in solution. The individual hybridized molecules were imaged with an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) in two ways. In the single-color mode, target molecules were detected via fluorescence from hybridized probes only. This system could detect HPV-16 DNA in the presence of human genomic DNA down to 0.7 copy/cell and had a linear dynamic range of over 6 orders of magnitude. In the dual-color mode, we employed fluorescence resonance energy transfer and added YOYO-3 dye as the acceptor. The two colors from Alexa Fluor 532 and YOYO-3 were dispersed by a transmission grating located in front of the ICCD. With this reinforced criterion for identifying the hybridized molecules, zero false-positive count was achieved. We also showed that DNA extracts from Pap test specimens did not interfere with the measurements.