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Reliable extraction and sensitive detection of RNA from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) is critical for a broad spectrum of immunology research and clinical diagnostics. RNA analysis platforms are dependent upon high-quality and high-quantity RNA; however, sensitive detection of specific responses associated with high-quality RNA extractions from human samples with limited PBMCs can be challenging. Furthermore, the comparative sensitivity between RNA quantification and best-practice protein quantification is poorly defined. Therefore, we provide herein a critical evaluation of the wide variety of current generation of RNA-based kits for PBMCs, representative of several strategies designed to maximize sensitivity. We assess these kits with a reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assay optimized for both analytically and diagnostically sensitive cell-based RNA-based applications. Specifically, three RNA extraction kits, one post-extraction RNA purification/concentration kit, four SYBR master-mix kits, and four reverse transcription kits were tested. RNA extraction and RT-qPCR reaction efficiency were evaluated with commonly used reference and cytokine genes. Significant variation in RNA expression of reference genes was apparent, and absolute quantification based on cell number was established as an effective RT-qPCR normalization strategy. We defined an optimized RNA extraction and RT-qPCR protocol with an analytical sensitivity capable of single cell RNA detection. The diagnostic sensitivity of this assay was sufficient to show a CD8 +  T cell peptide epitope hierarchy with as few as 1 × 10 4  cells. Finally, we compared our optimized RNA extraction and RT-qPCR protocol with current best-practice immune assays and demonstrated that our assay is a sensitive alternative to protein-based assays for peptide-specific responses, especially with limited PBMCs number. This protocol with high analytical and diagnostic sensitivity has broad applicability for both primary research and clinical practice.

An Analytically and Diagnostically Sensitive RNA Extraction and RT-qPCR Protocol for Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells