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Minimally invasive method outperformed tape stripping in a recent study.
According to a poster presented at Maui Derm NP + PA Summer 2022, a new patch has been shown to effectively gather over 7000 biomarkers from the affected skin of patients with psoriasis.1 The Dermal Biomarker Patch (Mindera Health) was used to gather 416 transcriptomes from 15 different body sites in a attempt to gauge the quality and quantity of mRNA collected from these samples. A subset of 376 psoriasis skin samples were placed in a storage buffer between 2–8˚C and transported in an insulated shipper system at the same temperate overnight prior to “downstream analysis.”
“Once received, next generation sequencing (NGS) was performed according to standard procedures,” the authors wrote. “Measurements were made of the gene detection rate and mRNA yield. Additionally, a subset of samples was analyzed at various time points after sample collection (1-10 days) to determine mRNA stability during storage and transport.”
Samples were tested for quality control after storage from 1 to over 10 days.Based on a quality control threshold of 20% gene recognition, 94.7% of samples “passed quality control metrics,” according to the authors.1
Gene detection rate averaged 43.3%, though results varied from 1.1% to 76.2%. Importantly, the study did not show a significant difference among body sites, while tape stripping does show location-dependent results.2
“The patch has highly reproducible effciency of extraction, excellent mRNA yields suitable for RNA-Seq protocols, good QC - 96% of samples passing quality control metrics and no body-site bias in transcriptome extraction,” the authors wrote.1
References:
1. Dickerson T, Boyd S, Andrade B et al. A dermal biomarker patch displays excellent analytical performance and outperforms tape stripping in psoriatic skin. Poster presented at Maui Derm NP + PA. Held June 23-25, 2022, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and virtual.
2. Wong R, Tran V, Talwalker S, Benson NR. Analysis of RNA recovery and gene expression in the epidermis using non-invasive tape stripping. J Dermatol Sci. 2006, 44(2):81-9