Hybridization kinetics analysis of an oligonucleotide microarray for microRNA detection

MicroRNA (miRNA) microarrays have been successfully used for profiling miRNA expression in many physiological processes such as development, differentiation, oncogenesis, and other disease processes. Detecting miRNA by miRNA microarray is actually based on nucleic acid hybridization between target molecules and their corresponding complementary probes. Due to the small size and high degree of similarity among miRNA sequences, the hybridization condition must be carefully optimized to get specific and reliable signals. Previously, we reported a microarray platform to detect miRNA expression. In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of our microarray platform. After systematic analysis, we determined an optimized hybridization condition with high sensitivity and specificity for miRNA detection. Our results would be helpful for other hybridization-based miRNA detection methods, such as northern blot and nuclease protection assay.