Stem Cell-Specific miRNA Plate Assay Kits

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules, regulating up to 30% of mammalian gene expression. Some of these molecules appear to be stem cell specific. Microarray analysis of miRNA expression displays a set of unique miRNAs in stem cells. Signosis developed a panel of miRNA plate assay kits to analyze these miRNA molecules.

A. Benefits:

Signosis' miRNA plate arrays offer following benefits:

• Simple - Do miRNA detection as doing ELISA. It does not need enzymatic conversion from miRNA into cDNA. The entire assay procedure is “incubation and wash”.

• Higher sensitivity and better discrimination power - The detection is approximately 1000 times more sensitive than miRNA Northern blot. In addition, it has higher discrimination power than miRNA Northern blot in differetiating miRNA isoforms.

• Quantitative comparison – The difference of two or more samples in the expression of a specific miRNA can be quantitatively analyzed.

B. Principle of the technology

In the proprietary miRNA plate assay, one miRNA molecule is flanked by a capture oligo and a biotinated detection oligo through two bridges oligos. One of the bridge oligos is partially hybridized with the miRNA molecule and the capture oligo and another with the miRNA and the detection oligo. The hybrid is immobilized onto plate through hybridization with an immobilized oligo and detected by a streptavidin-HRP conjugate and chemiluminecscent substrate. This hybrid structure is sensitive to the sequence of the miRNA molecule. One nucleotide difference will prevent the formation of the hybrid and therefore miRNA isoform can be differentiated, which normally is hard to tackle with Northern blot. In addition, the sensitivity of the assay is higher than miRNA Northern blot assay.