Digital assays have become a state-of-the-art technology for the sensing of nucleic acid molecules. Nevertheless, most of the prevalent digital nucleic acid assays heavily rely on sealed microchambers and sophisticated nucleic acid amplification strategies to achieve an end-point digital signal readout. Herein, we proposed an artificial intelligence (AI)-facilitated, digital fluorescence nanomotor tracking-powered assay (AI-dFNA) for one-step, amplification-free, and highly sensitive detection of microRNAs (miRNAs). In this design, even a single target miRNA-templated amplification-free ligation can introduce a sufficient driving force on the surface of a fully open fluorescence nanoparticle to cause remarkable motion behaviors. With the assistance of a self-developed AI algorithm, clear discrimination of positive and negative fluorescent nanomotors can be achieved, enabling real-time digital miRNA sensing. The AI-dFNA avoids the use of enclosed microchambers and intricate signal amplification techniques, which could even identify varying fluorescence colors of nanomotors to allow for the analysis of different kinds of miRNA molecules, pioneering a new direction toward next-generation digital nucleic acid sensing.
Shi et al. (2026) studied this question.
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