Optimizing the extraction of small RNA from plasma for NGS applications

MicroRNAs (miRNA) play an important role in the regulation of protein levels. They are tissue specific, stable in extracellular space and their expression profiles have been shown to correlate with health status in multiple studies. To realize the full potential of miRNA as biomarkers, there is a need for a workflow able to extract efficiently circulating cell free RNA at high yield and purity.

Here we present a method for rapid high-throughput automated extraction of circulating free RNA from very small volumes of plasma (200 µl) with the chemagic™ miRNA 200 H96 Kit (CMG-1224) using our chemagic 360 instrument. We also show that the purified RNA obtained is suitable for the preparation of small RNA libraries with the NEXTFLEX® Small RNA-seq Kit v4, opening the door to the possibility of a fully automated workflow.