Soluble analyte detection and amplification

A method for detecting a non-nucleic acid compound of interest in a sample, comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a binding construct comprising a non-nucleic acid recognition portion which recognizes and binds said compound of interest, and a nucleic acid portion;
• b) mixing said binding construct with said sample to form construct-compound complexes in solution;
• c) providing one or more surfaces, wherein said surfaces comprise particles bearing one or more accessible binding targets capable of recognizing and binding to said recognition portion of said binding construct;
• d) introducing said one or more surfaces to said solution of said construct-compound complexes in order for said one or more surfaces to form construct-surface complexes with any unbound binding constructs, whereby said solution contains said construct-compound complexes and said construct-surface complexes;
• e) separating said construct-surface complexes from said solution leaving behind said construct-compound complexes in solution;
• f) using the solution obtained in step (e), which comprises said construct-compound complexes, without washing said construct-compound complexes, directly in a polymerase chain reaction for amplification of the nucleic acid portion of the binding construct in said construct-compound complexes;
• and
• g) detecting the presence or absence of amplified nucleic acid from said polymerase chain reaction,
• wherein the presence of said amplified nucleic acid indicates the presence of said compound of interest in said sample.