The present disclosure relates, in some aspects, to the field of nucleic acid detection. Disclosed herein are methods and compositions for detecting nucleic acids using synthetic single-stranded ribonucleic acids (RNAs). In certain embodiments, synthetic single-stranded RNAs are used to detect therapeutic nucleic acids, such as therapeutic deoxyribonucleic acids (DNAs) and/or therapeutic ribonucleic acids (RNAs).