Description
The Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit provides efficient, reproducible extraction of circulating cell-free RNA from biofluids such as plasma, urine, and CSF, without the use of organic extraction chemistry or cumbersome vacuum manifolds. The scalable workflow supports flexible input volumes while promoting efficient reagent use.
The kit is compatible with a range of sample collection tubes, including standard anticoagulant tubes (e.g., EDTA and sodium citrate) as well as preservative-containing tubes. Included DNase enables an optimized on-bead treatment step that removes contaminating DNA, ensuring true cfRNA signal in downstream applications.
Compatible with a wide range of NGS and amplification workflows, this kit enables flexible integration into existing workflows. When paired with NEBNext® library preparation and NEB amplification solutions, this cfRNA extraction workflow delivers streamlined, end-to-end workflows from sample to signal.
Need automation support or a script? Submit a request using the Monarch Automation Support & Script Request form. Automation scripts are currently available for select platforms.
| Properties |
| Purification Format |
Magnetic beads |
| Compatible Platform |
Manual or open automation platforms |
| Intended Application |
Free circulating RNA and exosome RNA extraction from liquid samples |
| RNA size isolated |
Total cirulating RNA including long RNAs, small RNAs, miRNAs |
| Sample Type Compatibility |
Plasma, urine, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) |
| Compatible Downstream Applications |
Sequencing and amplification applications including RNA-Seq, Small RNA library prep, RT-qPCR |
Figure 1: Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit enables extraction of high-quality cfRNA.
Circulating cell-free RNA isolated using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit is high-quality and captures total RNA present in the sample. A) 2 ml plasma from six healthy donors (Innovative Research) was subjected to cfRNA extraction using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit and quantified using RNA Pico Bioanalyzer® (Agilent® Technologies). Inherent donor variability is captured in cfRNA quantification. (B) 1 ml and 2 ml plasma from pooled healthy donor set (Precision Biologic®) was subjected to extraction using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit and a cfRNA extraction workflow from another supplier. Resulting cfRNA concentrations are reported as measured by RNA Pico Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies). (C) 1 ml plasma from a healthy donor (Precision Biologic) was subjected to cfRNA extraction using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit and a cfRNA extraction kit from another supplier. miRNA was measured using the Small RNA Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies).
Figure 2: Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit includes an on-bead DNase treatment for effective removal of contaminating DNA.
Optimized on-bead DNase treatment removes contaminating DNA during extraction. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology, sterile cell culture media (DMEM, Thermo Fisher Scientific®) was spiked with Low Molecular Weight DNA Ladder (NEB #N3233), and ssRNA ladder (NEB #N0362) to simulate biofluid samples containing DNA and RNA. 2 ml of the simulated sample was used as the input for extraction using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit, with and without incorporating the on-bead DNase step during extraction. Isolated nucleic acids were analyzed on the Cell-Free DNA TapeStation® (Agilent Technologies) for DNA visualization and High Sensitivity RNA TapeStation (Agilent Technologies) for RNA visualization. Samples treated with on-bead DNase show no trace of DNA on the Cell-free DNA TapeStation, and show successful isolation of spiked RNA ladder as seen on the HS RNA TapeStation.
Figure 3: Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit eluates show minimal DNA contamination compared to another supplier.
LC-MS based analysis of the composition of the cfRNA extraction eluates demonstrates minimal DNA contamination when using Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit. 2 ml plasma from healthy donors (Innovative Research) was subjected to cfRNA extraction using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit and a cfRNA extraction kit from another supplier. Contaminating DNA in cfRNA eluates was measured using nucleoside LC-MS (NEB #M0649, Nucleoside Digestion Mix). Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit results in minimal DNA contamination in the eluate, leading to true RNA representation in downstream assays.
Figure 4: Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit combined with NEBNext UltraExpress RNA Library Prep Kit enables high-quality cfRNA sequencing workflow.
Circulating cell-free RNA from three donors was isolated using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit. 2 μl of each extracted cfRNA was used as input for the NEBNext UltraExpress® RNA Library Prep Kit (NEB #E3330) and NEBNext Multiplex Oligos for Illumina (Unique Dual Index UMI Adaptors RNA Set 1, NEB #E7416) with modified protocol to prepare total RNA-seq libraries, which were then pooled into 8-plex hybrid capture reactions using an RNA exome panel (Twist Biosciences®) to generate exome-enriched RNA-seq libraries. Both total RNA-seq and exome-enriched RNA-seq libraries were sequenced on the NovaSeq 6000 2x100 bases, downsampled to 30 million read pairs. To generate RNA-seq metrics (A, C), reads were adapter trimmed using Flexbar (v.3.5.0), aligned to the GRCh38 reference genome with STAR v2.7.8a, and deduplicated using Picard MarkDuplicates(v1.56.0) considering both the UMI sequence as well as alignment position. The percentage of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) reads was calculated using BBDuk v39.01 by identifying reads containing at least six kmers (k=25) from rRNA sequences. The percentage of coding bases was calculated as the fraction of coding bases in the non-rRNA reads. Salmon v1.10.1 was used to map to GENCODE v38 annotations and quantify mRNA transcripts from trimmed, unique, deduplicated reads (B).
Figure 5: Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit combined with NEBNext Low-bias Small RNA Library Prep Kit enables small RNA profiling.
Circulating cell-free RNA from three donors was isolated using the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit. 1 or 0.5 μl of RNA was used as input into the NEBNext Low-bias Small RNA Library Prep Kit (NEB #E3420) with NEBNext LV Unique Dual Index Primers (NEB #E3402) with modifications to account for the very low inputs to prepare small RNA-seq libraries. Libraries were sequenced on the NextSeq 550 1x56 bases and downsampled to 10 million total reads. Reads were adaptor trimmed using Flexbar (v.3.5.0), mapped to the GRCh38 reference genome using STAR v2.7.8a, and STAR was used for transcript assignment and counting. The STAR reference was built using gencode v35 main annotations, supplemented with GENCODE tRNA annotations, rRNA annotations for subunits not included in gencode, and piRNA annotations from piRNAdb v1.7.6 that did not overlap with other annotations.
Figure 6: Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit workflow.
The Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction Kit is designed for efficient and reproducible isolation of circulating cell-free RNA (cfRNA) from biofluids with an on-bead DNase treatment included during extraction. Flexible by design, the kit supports both manual and automated workflows.
- This product is related to the following categories:
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Magnetic Bead-Based Nucleic Acid Purification,
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Nucleic Acid Purification,