PCR-based clinical and forensic tests often have low
sensitivity or even false-negative results caused by
potent PCR inhibitors found in blood and soil. It is
widely accepted that purification of target DNA before
PCR is necessary for successful amplification. In
an attempt to overcome PCR inhibition, enhance
PCR amplification, and simplify the PCR protocol, we
demonstrate improved PCR-enhancing cocktails containing
nonionic detergent, L-carnitine, D-()-trehalose,
and heparin. These cocktails, in combination
with two inhibitor-resistant Taq mutants, OmniTaq
and Omni Klentaq, enabled efficient amplification of
exogenous, endogenous, and high-GC content DNA
targets directly from crude samples containing human
plasma, serum, and whole blood without DNA
purification. In the presence of these enhancer cocktails,
the mutant enzymes were able to tolerate at least
25% plasma, serum, or whole blood and as high as
80% GC content templates in PCR reactions. These
enhancer cocktails also improved the performance
of the novel Taq mutants in real-time PCR amplification
using crude samples, both in SYBR Green
fluorescence detection and TaqMan assays. The
novel enhancer mixes also facilitated DNA amplification
from crude samples with various commercial
Taq DNA polymerases. (J Mol Diagn 2010, 12:152–16