LightUp(®) probes in clinical diagnostics

The LightUp(®) Probe technology has now matured and reached the phase where it has been implemented in commercial reagent kits, i.e. the ReSSQ(®) product line. Several properties of the LightUp(®) probes make them particularly suitable for clinical settings. For instance, extraordinary shelf life and a chemical stability that allows convenient fridge storage. The origin of the higher stability of LightUp(®) probe kits compared to others, based on alternative probe technologies, is partly the relatively good stability of cyanine dyes but also the resistance towards nucleases and proteases of the synthetic DNA analogue peptide nucleic acid that is used as the sequence recognizing element in LightUp probes. It is clear from recent trends in the PCR amplification hardware technology that the instrumentation is becoming more flexible and less adapted for dedicated probe chemistries. This will pave the way for increased standardization in the field of DNA diagnostics and the development of cross-platform assays. In the present review the LightUp technology will briefly be presented and discussed. The utility of the technology will be illustrated by examples from cytomegalovirus quantification and monitoring of the viral load of the SARS Coronavirus. An example of cancer diagnostics by detection of altered gene expression patterns will also be shown.