L1CAM immunocapture generates a unique extracellular vesicle population with a reproducible miRNA fingerprint.

Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding RNAs with significant potential as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. However, a lack of reproducibility across studies has hindered their introduction into clinical settings. Inconsistencies between studies include a lack of consensus on the miRNAs associated with a specific disease and the direction of regulation.

miRNA extracted from extracellular vesicles is a robust biomarker of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Background And Objectives: We examined miRNA biomarkers for ALS extracted from extracellular vesicles in blood samples using a large and diverse patient and control population. Different blood collection and storage protocols by different investigators could impact repeatability of miRNA analysis. We tested the hypotheses that miRNA extracted from extracellular vesicles using immunoaffinity purification techniques are robust and repeatable across investigators, laboratories and in a broad ALS population.

A comparison of the efficiency of RNA extraction from extracellular vesicles using the Qiagen RNeasy MinElute versus Enzymax LLC RNA Tini Spin columns and qPCR of miRNA.

One consequence of the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is an interruption to the supply of laboratory consumables, particularly those used for RNA extraction. This category includes column-based RNA extraction kits designed to retain short RNA species (defined as having fewer than 200 nucleotides), from small sample volumes, e.g.

An miRNA fingerprint using neural-enriched extracellular vesicles from blood plasma: towards a biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease.

Biomarkers for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease (ALS/MND) are currently not clinically available for disease diagnosis or analysis of disease progression. If identified, biomarkers could improve patient outcomes by enabling early intervention and assist in the determination of treatment efficacy. We hypothesized that neural-enriched extracellular vesicles could provide microRNA (miRNA) fingerprints with unequivocal signatures of neurodegeneration.

The non-protein amino acid BMAA is misincorporated into human proteins in place of L-serine causing protein misfolding and aggregation.

Mechanisms of protein misfolding are of increasing interest in the aetiology of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by protein aggregation and tangles including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). Some forms of neurodegenerative illness are associated with mutations in genes which control assembly of disease related proteins. For example, the mouse sticky mutation sti, which results in undetected mischarging of tRNA(Ala) with serine resulting in the substitution of serine for alanine in proteins causes cerebellar Purkinje cell loss and ataxia in laboratory animals.