miRNA quantification - (Mar/18/2013 )

There are some commercial miRNA quantification kits available (Qiagen, Exiqon, ABI etc) Are there any specific reasons to prefer one commercial miRNA quantification assay over the other? What are your experiences?

I do not work with miRNAs myself, but have you tried to use google for product reviews? have you checked your kits in biocompare.com?

yes!

Hi dude3005,

This article discusses different RNA isolation methods (with a section on miRNA): Eldh et al (2012), Molecular Immunology 50, 578-286.

McDonald et al (2011), Clinical Chemistry 57, 833-840 recommend Ambion's mirVana Paris kit for their serum/plasma samples.

We have just placed an order for the Exiqon isolation kit, mainly because we are profiling miRNA from serum and want to use Exiqon's LNA method, which is supposed to be more sensitive for low abundant targets.

Previously we have used Qiagen's miRNeasy kit which was quite good for our serum samples, but we haven't done a direct comparison of the different methods.