低温变性下复合PCR(co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature-polymerase chain reaction, COLD- PCR)是一种在高丰度野生型序列背景下选择性变性和扩增低丰度突变型序列的方法,可将突变型序列富集10~100倍。基于突变片段Tm值的改变和异源双链DNA分子的形成,COLD-PCR可富集扩增片段中所有类型和位置的突变,也可富集未知突变,具有敏感、特异、精确、廉价和易操作等优点。COLD-PCR及其衍生方法被应用于肿瘤、微生物、产前筛查和动植物等领域,对疾病的早期诊断、病程和治疗监控、药物选择、预后判断和植物育种等均有积极的作用。本文就COLD-PCR的原理、关键技术、衍生方法及其应用进行综述。

Co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature-polymerase chain reaction (COLD-PCR) is a novel form of PCR that selectively denatures and amplifies low-abundance mutations from mixtures of wild-type and mutation-containing sequences, enriching the mutation 10 to 100 folds. Due to the slightly altered melting temperature (Tm) of the double-stranded DNA and the formation of the mutation/wild-type heteroduplex DNA, COLD-PCR methods are sensitive, specific, accurate, cost-effective and easy to maneuver, and can enrich mutations of any type and at any position, even unknown mutations within amplicons. COLD-PCR and its improved methods are now applied in cancer, microorganisms, prenatal screening, animals and plants. They are extremely useful for early diagnosis, monitoring the prognosis of disease and the efficiency of the treatment, drug selection, prediction of prognosis, plant breeding and etc. In this review, we introduce the principles, key techniques, derived methods and applications of COLD-PCR.