Blood Plasma

Plasma RNA — an early warning of global changes

Blood plasma is a cell-free component of blood which contains a vast array of molecules that are secreted by different tissues and transported in the systemic circulation.

Changes in the RNA profile of plasma can be an early sign of global changes in the body due to disease initiation, progression, or response to treatments. RNA sequencing of plasma emerges as a powerful technique to identify RNA biomarkers with enormous diagnostic and clinical potential.

Why sequence plasma with omiics

As with all cell-free biofluids, plasma has ultra-low RNA content which makes detection difficult and requires expert sample preparation and bioinformatics. Omiics has optimized protocols for both total RNA-seq and small RNA-seq of plasma, allowing detection of a large proportion of genes with good read depth using samples with an RNA content as low as 100 pg (total RNA) or 2 ng (small RNA).

The omiics team has ample expertise working with exosomes/extracellular vesicles, and we can reliably perform sequencing of both whole biofluid and EV/exosome purification fractions. Adding EV purification increases the difficulty of the RNA-seq, but it also significantly improves the quality of the output.

Average logCPM distribution of all genes in the data set plotted. Large proportion of genes detected with good read depth, observed reproducibly across biological replicates

Total RNA

mRNA

lncRNA

circRNA

Small RNAs

miRNA, tRNA fragments (tiRNA), siRNA, piRNA

Case: Profiling biofluid RNA to uncover potential cancer biomarkers

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive form of cancer, which has a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%, largely due to symptoms often not appearing until the later stages of disease progression, where surgical resection of the tumor is no longer possible. Symptoms of PDAC are often vague and do not specifically point to cancer, further complicating diagnosis.

Efficient screening of biofluid biomarkers could significantly improve early diagnosis, potentially allowing a greater number of patients to receive curative treatment through surgical resection.

Challenge:

Identify miRNA biomarkers of PDAC in blood plasma and bile liquid biopsies

Benefits:

+ Small RNA-seq of plasma and bile

+ Analysis of whole biofluids and extracellular vesicle (EV) fraction

+ Differential expression analysis of patients vs healthy subjects

Results:

A specific signature of significantly upregulated miRNA families was detected in extracellular vesicles in both plasma and bile

Read the full-length publication here

Ready to get started?

Just contact us for a non-binding inquiry or read more about our experience with other biofluids: