Whole blood is a simple source of DNA/RNA, however while there are several isolation methods in the literature, they are not capable of isolating pure enough nucleic acid to perform molecular analyses such as PCR. One possible explanation is that a variety of inhibitory substances in blood, such as hemoglobulin, are not eliminated or inactivated during the isolation process. Even in some situations, the mini column becomes plugged with blood, making isolation impossible. This is also true for a variety of commercial kits on the market. As a result, additional steps are required to remove these inhibitor components, which lead to the development of special cumbersome methods or commercial kits designed specifically for blood.
We developed a universal mini column DNA/RNA isolation method that can separate DNA/RNA from whole blood without pretreatment or clotting of the small column. The EDTA blood samples or fresh blood samples should be used in this protocol, hence heparin blood samples cannot be used as heparin is known to inhibit the PCR. The extracted nucleic acid is used for performing various molecular assays on biomarkers, viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites such as Plasmodium species.
This kit is also useful for detecting blood pathogens such as Plasmodium (a malaria parasite), Babesia, Anaplasma, and more.
This approach can also be applied to buccal swabs, nasal swabs, tissue, plasma (serum), lymph nodes, and circulating cells. The user does not need to have multiple kits to perform nucleic acid isolation, which saves money and time.