Endonuclease-Assisted Selective Exponential Amplification for Ultrasensitive Enrichment and Detection of Low-Abundance Mutant Alleles in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent and lethal malignancies worldwide. Despite recent advancements in precision medicine, early detection and therapeutic monitoring of lung cancer remain challenging. Herein, an endonuclease-assisted selective exponential amplification (ESEA) platform is presented that selectively depletes wild-type alleles through programmable endonuclease digestion (CRISPR-Cas or restriction enzymes) while simultaneously amplifying mutant alleles, enabling robust and cost-effective detection at mutant allele frequencies as low as 0.00625%.