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homeRNA: A Self-Sampling Kit for the Collection of Peripheral Blood and Stabilization of RNA

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Download Hi-Res ImageDownload to MS-PowerPointCite This:Anal. Chem. 2021, 93, 39, 13196-13203
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    homeRNA: A Self-Sampling Kit for the Collection of Peripheral Blood and Stabilization of RNA
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    • Amanda J. Haack
      Amanda J. Haack
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      More by Amanda J. Haack
    • Fang Yun Lim
      Fang Yun Lim
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      More by Fang Yun Lim
    • Dakota S. Kennedy
      Dakota S. Kennedy
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      More by Dakota S. Kennedy
    • John H. Day
      John H. Day
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      More by John H. Day
    • Karen N. Adams
      Karen N. Adams
      Institute of Translational Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      More by Karen N. Adams
    • Jing J. Lee
      Jing J. Lee
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
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    • Erwin Berthier
      Erwin Berthier
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      More by Erwin Berthier
      Orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4421-9034
    • Ashleigh B. Theberge*
      Ashleigh B. Theberge
      Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      Department of Urology, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
      *Email: [email protected]
      More by Ashleigh B. Theberge
      Orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3394-1435
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    Analytical Chemistry

    Cite this: Anal. Chem. 2021, 93, 39, 13196–13203
    Click to copy citationCitation copied!
    https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02008
    Published September 21, 2021
    Copyright © 2021 American Chemical Society
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    Abstract

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    Gene expression analysis (e.g., targeted gene panels and transcriptomics) from whole blood can elucidate mechanisms of the immune function and aid in the discovery of biomarkers. Conventional venipuncture offers only a small snapshot of our broad immune landscape as immune responses may occur outside of the time and location parameters available for conventional venipuncture. A self-operated method that enables flexible sampling of liquid whole blood coupled with immediate stabilization of cellular RNA is instrumental in facilitating capture and preservation of acute or transient immune fluxes. To this end, we developed homeRNA, a kit for self-collection of peripheral blood (∼0.5 mL) and immediate stabilization of cellular RNA, using the Tasso-SST blood collection device with a specially designed stabilizer tube containing RNAlater. To assess the feasibility of homeRNA for self-collection and stabilization of whole blood RNA, we conducted a pilot study (n = 47 participants) in which we sent homeRNA to participants aged 21–69, located across 10 US states (94% successful blood collections, n = 61/65). Among participants who successfully collected blood, 93% reported no or minimal pain/discomfort using the kit (n = 39/42), and 79% reported very easy/somewhat easy stabilization protocol (n = 33/42). Total RNA yield from the stabilized samples ranged between 0.20 and 5.99 μg (mean = 1.51 μg), and all but one RNA integrity number values were above 7.0 (mean = 8.1), indicating limited RNA degradation. The results from this study demonstrate the self-collection and RNA stabilization of whole blood with homeRNA by participants themselves in their own home.

    Copyright © 2021 American Chemical Society

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    Supporting Information

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    The Supporting Information is available free of charge at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02008.

    • Materials and methods on the development and assembly of the homeRNA blood collection and stabilization kit, RNA stabilization, isolation, and gene expression analysis, and Pilot study: feasibility and usability assessment of the homeRNA kit, supporting tables and figures, and instructions for use (PDF)

    • Supplemental data set containing sample information (XLSX)

    • Design files for tube components (Adaptor 1, Adaptor 2, Cap, Vial) and Sample Holder (ZIP)

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    Electronic Supporting Information files are available without a subscription to ACS Web Editions. The American Chemical Society holds a copyright ownership interest in any copyrightable Supporting Information. Files available from the ACS website may be downloaded for personal use only. Users are not otherwise permitted to reproduce, republish, redistribute, or sell any Supporting Information from the ACS website, either in whole or in part, in either machine-readable form or any other form without permission from the American Chemical Society. For permission to reproduce, republish and redistribute this material, requesters must process their own requests via the RightsLink permission system. Information about how to use the RightsLink permission system can be found at http://pubs.acs.org/page/copyright/permissions.html.

    Cited By

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    This article is cited by 12 publications.

    1. Filip Stefanovic, Lauren G. Brown, James MacDonald, Theo Bammler, Darawan Rinchai, Serena Nguyen, Yuting Zeng, Victoria Shinkawa, Karen Adams, Damien Chaussabel, Erwin Berthier, Amanda J. Haack, Ashleigh B. Theberge. Your Blood is Out for Delivery: Considerations of Shipping Time and Temperature on Degradation of RNA from Stabilized Whole Blood. Analytical Chemistry 2025, 97 (3) , 1635-1644. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.4c04591
    2. Ahsan Hameed, Mario G. Ferruzzi, Colin D. Kay, D. Keith Williams, Elaheh Rahbar, Andrew J. Morris. Comparison of the capillary and venous blood plasma lipidomes: validation of self-collected blood for plasma lipidomics. Journal of Lipid Research 2025, 66 (3) , 100755. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlr.2025.100755
    3. Michele Protti, Elisa Milandri, Roberta Di Lecce, Laura Mercolini, Roberto Mandrioli. New trends in bioanalysis sampling and pretreatment: How modern microsampling is revolutionising the field. Advances in Sample Preparation 2025, 13 , 100161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sampre.2025.100161
    4. Fang Yun Lim, Hannah G. Lea, Ashley M. Dostie, Soo-Young Kim, Tammi L. van Neel, Grant W. Hassan, Meg G. Takezawa, Lea M. Starita, Karen N. Adams, Michael Boeckh, Joshua T. Schiffer, Ollivier Hyrien, Alpana Waghmare, Erwin Berthier, Ashleigh B. Theberge. homeRNA self-blood collection enables high-frequency temporal profiling of presymptomatic host immune kinetics to respiratory viral infection: a prospective cohort study. eBioMedicine 2025, 112 , 105531. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105531
    5. Tobias Brummaier, Darawan Rinchai, Mohammed Toufiq, Mohammed Y. Karim, Tanwir Habib, Jürg Utzinger, Daniel H. Paris, Rose McGready, Alexandra K. Marr, Tomoshige Kino, Annalisa Terranegra, Souhaila Al Khodor, Damien Chaussabel, Basirudeen Syed Ahamed Kabeer. Design of a targeted blood transcriptional panel for monitoring immunological changes accompanying pregnancy. Frontiers in Immunology 2024, 15 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1319949
    6. Fang Yun Lim, Soo-Young Kim, Karisma N. Kulkarni, Rachel L. Blazevic, Louise E. Kimball, Hannah G. Lea, Amanda J. Haack, Maia S. Gower, Terry Stevens-Ayers, Lea M. Starita, Michael Boeckh, Ollivier Hyrien, Joshua T. Schiffer, Ashleigh B. Theberge, Alpana Waghmare. High-frequency home self-collection of capillary blood correlates IFI27 expression kinetics with SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance. Journal of Clinical Investigation 2023, 133 (23) https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI173715
    7. Abbie D. Leino, John Takyi-Williams, Manjunath P. Pai. Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling to Enhance the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Tacrolimus and Mycophenolic Acid: A Systematic Review and Critical Assessment. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring 2023, 45 (4) , 463-478. https://doi.org/10.1097/FTD.0000000000001066
    8. Ria C. Fyffe-Freil, Paul J. Jannetto, Patrick M. Vanderboom. To Boldly Go Where No Device Has Gone Before: Specimen Self-Collection for the Clinical Laboratory. Clinical Microbiology Newsletter 2023, 45 (4) , 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinmicnews.2023.02.001
    9. Darawan Rinchai, Sara Deola, Gabriele Zoppoli, Basirudeen Syed Ahamed Kabeer, Sara Taleb, Igor Pavlovski, Selma Maacha, Giusy Gentilcore, Mohammed Toufiq, Lisa Mathew, Li Liu, Fazulur Rehaman Vempalli, Ghada Mubarak, Stephan Lorenz, Irene Sivieri, Gabriella Cirmena, Chiara Dentone, Paola Cuccarolo, Daniele Roberto Giacobbe, Federico Baldi, Alberto Garbarino, Benedetta Cigolini, Paolo Cremonesi, Michele Bedognetti, Alberto Ballestrero, Matteo Bassetti, Boris P. Hejblum, Tracy Augustine, Nicholas Van Panhuys, Rodolphe Thiebaut, Ricardo Branco, Tracey Chew, Maryam Shojaei, Kirsty Short, Carl G. Feng, , Susu M. Zughaier, Andrea De Maria, Benjamin Tang, Ali Ait Hssain, Davide Bedognetti, Jean-Charles Grivel, Damien Chaussabel. High–temporal resolution profiling reveals distinct immune trajectories following the first and second doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Science Advances 2022, 8 (45) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abp9961
    10. Abbie D Leino, John Takyi-Williams, Bo Wen, Duxin Sun, Manjunath P Pai. Application of a new volumetric microsampling device for quantitative bioanalysis of immunosuppression. Bioanalysis 2022, 14 (17) , 1141-1152. https://doi.org/10.4155/bio-2022-0155
    11. Joost Brandsma, Josh G. Chenoweth, Melissa K. Gregory, Subramaniam Krishnan, Paul W. Blair, Deborah A. Striegel, Rittal Mehta, Kevin L. Schully, J. Stephen Dumler, CDR Cynthia S. Sikorski, Kelsey O’Connor, Susan A. Reichert-Scrivner, Carmen M. Paguirigan, Catherine F. T. Uyehara, COL Viseth Ngauy, Christopher A. Myers, Danielle V. Clark, . Assessing the use of a micro-sampling device for measuring blood protein levels in healthy subjects and COVID-19 patients. PLOS ONE 2022, 17 (8) , e0272572. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272572
    12. Lauren G. Brown, Amanda J. Haack, Dakota S. Kennedy, Karen N. Adams, Jennifer E. Stolarczuk, Meg G. Takezawa, Erwin Berthier, Sanitta Thongpang, Fang Yun Lim, Damien Chaussabel, Mathieu Garand, Ashleigh B. Theberge. At-home blood collection and stabilization in high temperature climates using homeRNA. Frontiers in Digital Health 2022, 4 https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.903153
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    Analytical Chemistry

    Cite this: Anal. Chem. 2021, 93, 39, 13196–13203
    Click to copy citationCitation copied!
    https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02008
    Published September 21, 2021
    Copyright © 2021 American Chemical Society
    Request reuse permissions

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