The response of the strip test was linear over the range 0.5 to 20 nM miRNA-21 (limit of detection of 115 pM) and showed good reproducibility (intra and inter CVs below 8%); furthermore, the assay was shown to be highly selective, discriminating other interference miRNAs mimics (e.g. miRNA-221 and miRNA-205).  Main advantages of the single-probe strip test design are its versatility, simplicity and robustness, which can be easily extended to other miRNA targets by tuning the sequence of the single probe.  Furthermore, the use of the structurally responsive single probe is particularly relevant in the case of short-length targets, such as miRNA, whereas a conventional sandwich approach might require a careful control of assay conditions such as hybridization temperature and salt concentration.
THERM
The colour intensities of the test zones of the strip tests were analysed with the ImageJ software (Scion Corp., USA) and quantified as a function of pixel intensity. 
ImageJ