An innovative charge-based extracellular vesicle isolation method for highly efficient extraction of EV-miRNAs from liquid samples: miRQuick

Abstract

Extracellular vesicle-derived microRNAs (EV-miRNAs) are promising biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis. However, existing EV-miRNA extraction technologies have a complex two-step process that results in low extraction efficiency and inconsistent results. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a new single-step extraction method, called miRQuick, for efficient and high-recovery extraction of EV-miRNAs from samples. The miRQuick method involves adding positively charged substances to the sample, causing negatively charged EVs to quickly aggregate and precipitate. A membrane lysate is then added to extract only miRNA. The entire process can be completed within an hour using standard laboratory equipment. We validated the miRQuick method using various analytical techniques and compared its performance to other methods for plasma, urine and saliva samples. The miRQuick method demonstrated significantly higher performance than other methods, not only for blood plasma but also for urine and saliva samples. Furthermore, we successfully extracted and detected nine biomarker candidate miRNAs in the plasma of breast cancer patients using miRQuick. Our results demonstrate that miRQuick is a rapid and efficient method for EV-miRNA extraction with excellent repeatability, making it suitable for various applications including cancer diagnosis.