An optimized protocol for RNA isolation from patient blood samples

A new article published in Biology Methods and Protocols (December 2016) by Dr. Ari Meerson, a Danish Diabetes Academy Visiting Professor from MIGAL Galilee Research Institute in Israel, compares six commercial plasma small RNA isolation kits from either whole plasma or a plasma-derived ultracentrifugation fraction.

A STUDY ON HOW THE REPERTOIRE OF MICRO RNAS IN THE BLOOD CHANGES WHEN A PERSON'S METABOLISM CHANGES

Our blood carries many types of molecules, among them small RNAs called microRNAs. These RNAs can serve as biomarkers of diseases and other processes happening in the organism. They can also be messengers, carrying biological information from one tissue to another through the bloodstream. 

Ari Meerson is collaborating with Professor Thorkil Ploug, his host at the University of Copenhagen, on a project studying how the repertoire of small RNAs in the blood changes when a person's metabolism changes (for example, when a person becomes pre-diabetic).

FIRST STEP WAS TO DEVELOP AN OPTIMIZED PROTOCOL FOR RNA ISOLATION

"The first step was to develop an optimized protocol for RNA isolation from the patient blood samples", Dr. Meerson states. "We compared six commercial kits based on yield and quality (QIAGEN and Macherey-Nagel kits produced the best results).We also checked how ultracentrifugation of the sample affects the obtained yield (apparently, it increases the yield!). Finally, we checked the effects of hemolysis (the bursting of red blood cells in the sample) on the levels of specific microRNA molecules". 

This is what the methods paper entitled "Assessment of six commercial plasma small RNA isolation kits using qRT-PCR and electrophoretic separation: higher recovery of microRNA following ultracentrifugation" in Biology Methods and Protocols is about. Ari Meerson and Thorkil Ploug are currently using the protocol to process all the samples for the study, and hope that other researchers who need to isolate small RNAs from blood can also benefit from their experience.

Source: Biology Methods and Protocols