Arraystar uses extremely efficient adapter ligation with activated 5'-adenylated/3'-blocked adaptor and highly efficient Arraystar cDNA synthesis kit to convert as little as 50 ng total RNA to cDNA for miRNA qPCR (Fig. 1).  Enrichment of miRNA is typically not required. Samples from serum and plasma have been successfully tested, supporting their use as biomarkers. The primers are thermodynamically fine tuned and the Tm normalized to maximize uniformity across different microRNAs. The highly optimized reagent formulations and protocols ensure high sensitivity and specificity.

In addition to the qPCR service for any microRNAs, Arraystar manufactures miRStar™ Human Cancer Focus microRNA PCR qPCR Arrays to simultaneously profile well selected 184 human cancer miRNAs along with their 178 target mRNAs in one Panel.  This allows immediate and precise miRNA/mRNA target correlation (Fig. 2). The fast, easy, ready-to-use,  performance qualified 384-well plate assays can complete the entire process on the converted cDNAs under 4 hours.

Figure 1. Arraystar microRNA qPCR process.

Figure 2. miRStar™ qPCR simultaneously quantifies microRNAs and their target mRNAs for their regulatory correlation. Above: The mRNAs predicted by miRanda and TargetScan algorithms to be the targets of hsa-miR-877-5p. The biniding structure, local AU, position in mRNA, and conservation are annotated.