Enhancement in the efficiency of polymerase chain reaction by TiO2nanoparticles: crucial role of enhanced thermal conductivity

Improvement of the specificity and efficiency of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by nanoparticles is an emerging area of research. We observed that TiO2 nanoparticles of ∼ 25 nm diameter caused significant enhancement of PCR efficiency for various types of templates (namely plasmid DNA, genomic DNA and complementary DNA). By a series of experiments, the optimal TiO2 concentration was determined to be 0.4 nM, which resulted in up to a seven-fold increase in the amount of PCR product. As much as 50% reduction in overall reaction time (by reduction of the number of cycles and the time periods of cycles) was also achieved by utilizing TiO2 nanoparticles without compromising the PCR yield. Investigations of the mechanism of such PCR enhancement by simulations using the 'Fluent K epsilon turbulent model' provided evidence of faster heat transfer in the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles. Consistent with these findings, TiO2 nanoparticles were observed to augment the denaturation of genomic DNA, indicating more efficient thermal conductivity through the reaction buffer. TiO2 nanoparticle-assisted PCR may be useful for profound reduction of the overall PCR reaction period and for enhanced amplification of DNA amplicons from a variety of samples, including GC-rich templates that are often observed to yield unsatisfactory results.