Fast and Simplified Method for High Through-put Isolation of miRNA from Highly Purified High Density Lipoprotein

Summary

MicroRNAs play an important regulatory role and are emerging as novel therapeutic targets for various human diseases. It has been shown that miRNAs are carried in high density lipoproteins. We have developed a simplified method to rapidly isolate purified HDL suitable for miRNA analysis from human plasma.

Abstract

Small non-coding RNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in a variety of human diseases including metabolic syndromes. They may be utilized as biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis or may serve as targets for drug development, respectively. Recently it has been shown that miRNAs are carried in lipoproteins, particularly high density lipoproteins (HDL) and are delivered to recipient cells for uptake. This raises the possibility that miRNAs play a critical and pivotal role in cellular and organ function via regulation of gene expression as well as messenger for cell-cell communications and crosstalk between organs. Current methods for miRNA isolation from purified HDL are impractical when utilizing small samples on a large scale. This is largely due to the time consuming and laborious methods used for lipoprotein isolation. We have developed a simplified approach to rapidly isolate purified HDL suitable for miRNA analysis from plasma samples. This method should facilitate investigations into the role of miRNAs in health and disease and in particular provide new insights into the variety of biological functions, outside of the reverse cholesterol transport, that have been ascribed to HDL. Also, the miRNA species which are present in HDL can provide valuable information of clinical biomarkers for diagnosis of various diseases.

Introduction

MicroRNAs are endogenous non-coding tiny RNA species that are highly conserved and are considered key players in the regulation of various biological processes by degrading or repressing specific target messenger RNAs¹. Because miRNAs act intracellularly they have been explored as tissue-derived biomarkers which led to the discovery of tissue-specific functions of these miRNA. However, miRNAs are also found extracellularly either associated with proteins or in exosomes/micro vesicles that effectively can shield them from degradation by extracellular RNases². More recent studies have shown that the protective effect of HDL may not be closely linke....

Protocol

1. Collection of Blood Samples

1. Collect fasting peripheral venous blood samples into 10 ml plastic tubes containing anticoagulant Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) (which has several advantages over other anticoagulants) by standard venipuncture of a prominent vein in the antecubital fossa.
2. Centrifuge the blood samples at 1,600 x g for 20 min at 4 °C in a tabletop centrifuge to obtain plasma free of red blood cells and small amounts of RNA.
3. Sequentially centrifuge the supernatant at 3,000 g (4 °C) in a swinging bucket rotor for 10 min to remove WBC & Platelets and then additional 15 min to remove remaining cell debris ....

Results

Isolation of High Density Lipoprotein After Removal of Exosomes
To obtain miRNA from highly purified HDL it is necessary to remove exosomes that represent a source of miRNA contamination⁷. This was done prior to density gradient ultracentrifugation with a commercially available kit. For practical purposes a three step standard density gradient ultracentrifugation protocol developed by commercial company was modified (Figure 1

Discussion

Identification of novel biomarkers from blood will aid in the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of various diseases. MicroRNAs have known to possess all the qualities of biomarkers and have been shown in various studies ^14-17. In this study we have demonstrated rapid and simple easy method to isolate miRNA from plasma HDL. Conventional density gradient ultra-centrifugation method of isolation of VLDL, LDL and HDL depends on accurate sampling of plasma, precise preparation of the buffer solution, measurement of .......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Plastic Vacutainer Lavender K2EDTA tubes	Becton, Dickinson and Company	366643
Centrifuge	Thermo Scientific, Sorvall Legend X1R	75004261
Densito 30PX densitometer	Mettler Toledo	MT51324450
ExoQuick solution	Invitrogen	4484451
Polycarbonate thick-walled ultracentrifuge tube	Thermo Scientific	O3237
Sorvall WX100 ultracentrifuge	Thermo Scientific	46902
Fat Red 7B	Sigma-Aldrich	201618
β-mercaptoethanol	Sigma-Aldrich
Amicon Ultra-15 Centrifugal filter devices 10K	Millipore	UFC901008
Amicon Ultra-centrifugal filter devices 3K	Millipore	UFC800308
QuickGel Lipo kit	Helena Laboratories	3344,3544T
Human lipoprotein standards for VLDL, LDL and HDL	LipoTrol; Helena Laboratories	5069
Rep Prep buffer	Helena Laboratories	3100
RNeasy MinElute spin columns	Qiagen
NanoDrop 1000 analyzer	Thermo Scientific
miScript II RT Kit	Qiagen	218161
CFX96 Touch real-time PCR detection system	BioRad
miRNeasy Serum/Plasma Kit	QIAGEN	217184
miScript Primer Assays	QIAGEN	141078139
miScript SYBR Green PCR Kit	QIAGEN	218073
miRNeasy Serum/Plasma Spike-In Control	QIAGEN	219610
NaOH	SIGMA-ALDRICH	480878
0.20 µM sterile syringe filter	SIGMA-ALDRICH	Z227536