These methodologies use principles that amplify or multiply the target of interest, usually incorporating an enzyme to produce millions or billions of copies in a relatively short time.
- NAAT is an acronym for nucleic acid amplification test.
Some enzymes used in amplification include:
DNA ligase (used in ligase-chain reaction amplification processes)
DNA polymerase (used in PCR, and frequently known as "taq polymerase".)
RNA polymerase (used in TMA - transcription-mediated amplification or NASBA - nucleic acid sequence-based amplification)
- Reverse transcriptase (used in TMA - transcription-mediated amplification, NASBA - nucleic acid sequence-based amplification, or LAMP - Loop-mediated isothermal amplification)
Alkaline phosphatase (used in branched DNA)
Cleavase (used in SDA-strand displacement amplification)
Note: The steps in amplified testing will vary depending on the target amplified, the requirement for thermal cycling (or no thermocycling), and detection techniques. It is beyond the scope of this course to go into greater detail. Do refer to the table on the next page and note some of the different methods.
