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miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays Featuring validated and T m-normalized LNA™-based capture probes, the miRCURY LNA™ arrays offer global microRNA expression profiling with unmatched specificity and sensitivity.
Ina K. Dahlsveen, Ph.D., Product Manager Back |
New benchmark studyLNA™- and DNA-based microarray capture probes compared.
See the comparison |
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- Broadest coverage on the market – get access to all miRBase v.16 microRNAs and our miRPlus™ sequences.
- Excellent sensitivity and specificity – Tm-optimized capture probes for detection of ALL microRNAs, regardless of GC-content
- Start from as little as 30 ng total RNA
- Thoroughly validated LNA™-enhanced capture probes – ensures accurate detection of all microRNAs, including low-abundance targets
- Frequently updated content following new miRBase releases
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Sensitive microarrays with superior microRNA coverageExiqon’s microRNA arrays feature Tm-normalized LNA™-enhanced capture probes, designed for excellent specificity and sensitivity even for AT-rich microRNAs. In addition, they offer great reproducibility with 99 % correlation between arrays and a dynamic range greater than 5 orders of magnitude.
We offer a complete solution for microRNA array profiling. Use our miRCURY™ RNA Isolation Kits to prepare total RNA suitable for use with our new miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Hi-Power Labeling Kits, which offer almost double signal intensity compared to our old kit. Exiqon's microarrays ship complete with buffers and spike-in microRNAs. Protocols are available for Tecan and MAUI hybridization stations as well as for manual hybridization. Furthermore, instructions for use in dual or single color experiments are also provided.
For more information on our miRCURY LNA™ Arrays, click the 'Experimental data' tab above.
Coverage
miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array, 6th gen - hsa, mmu & rno The 6th generation of our array contains more than 1891 capture probes, covering all human, mouse and rat microRNAs annotated in miRBase 16.0, as well as all viral microRNAs related to these species (Table 1). In addition, this array contains capture probes for 66 new miRPlus™ human microRNAs. These are proprietary microRNAs not found in miRBase.
Table 1
Coverage of miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays for 141 organisms. (Click to learn more)
Content- miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays are available in sets of 3, 6 or 24 pre-printed arrays or as ready-to-spot probe sets for your own printing.
- They ship complete with all array hybridization and washing solutions.
- 52 synthetic spike-in microRNAs are included with the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array 6th gen products. These are ideal for use in control experiments, normalizations and more.
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Uniform profiling of all microRNA across Tm-normalized array MicroRNA profiling is especially challenging due to the short length and variation in GC-content of these sequences. By using LNA™-enhanced capture probes, miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays solve the problem of detecting ALL microRNAs with high uniform affinity, including those that are AT-rich. This results in arrays that are extremely sensitive and specific.
Figure 1 explains in more detail how Tm-normalization of the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array improves microRNA profiling with a higher binding affinity. Figure 2 explains how the LNA™-enhanced microRNA capture probes display superior sensitivity compared to conventional DNA-based arrays and how this enables true detection of all microRNAs even those low in GC-content.
Unmatched sensitivity of validated array In combination with the new miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Hi-Power Labeling Kit, the 6th gen human, mouse and rat array has dramatically improved sensitivity compared to previous versions (Figure 3). More than half of the LNA™ capture probes on the array have a detection limit of ≤0.5 amol. This means that more microRNAs can be detected without increasing the amount of input RNA (Figure 4). In addition, the same number of microRNAs can be detected using just half of the input RNA (Figure 5).
ALL capture probes of the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays have been strictly selected and thoroughly validated. In addition, the arrays have been assessed empirically using synthetic microRNAs to ensure optimal performance and sensitivity for all microRNAs. This means that results obtained using these arrays can be trusted to reflect the true microRNA expression profiles in the samples.
Analysis starting from 30 ng total RNA
The high sensitivity of miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays means that reliable results can be obtained from as little as 30 ng of total RNA (Figure 6). Because of the high specificity of miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays, you can use as much sample as you would like and still get specific results. This is important if you would like to study microRNAs expressed at very low levels.
High specificity with single nucleotide discrimination miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays are highly specific for their microRNA targets. The combination of T m -normalized LNA™ capture probes and hybridization conditions optimized for high stringency binding, raises the specificity of the capture probes. The optimized LNA™ capture probe design provides superior distinction between closely related microRNA family members (Figure 7).
Broad dynamic range
miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays offer superior dynamic range over more than 5 orders of magnitude, ensuring that microRNAs with high and low expression levels will be detected well within the linear detection range (Figure 8).
Get microRNA information ahead of your colleagues with miRPlus™ microRNAs In addition to the microRNAs annotated in miRBase, our miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays contain miRPlus™ capture probes. These probes target proprietary microRNAs that have been identified by Exiqon using cloning and sequencing of human normal and diseased tissue. The sequences are subjected to strict quality control to ensure that they...
- are found in the human genome
- are truly different from annotated microRNAs
- have sequence structures similar to those of annotated microRNAs
- have precursor sequences that can form stem-loop structures
- are expressed in a tissue specific manner, as annotated microRNAs
- have been found in multiple, independent studies, by up to 6 different research groups
The miRPlus™ sequences give scientists unique information about microRNAs not available elsewhere.
The first miRPlus™ capture probes appeared on the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array in the middle of 2006 and over the years, several hundred of the miRPlus™ probes that have been featured on various versions of the arrays have now been annotated in miRBase (Figure 9).
This clearly demonstrates the high quality of our miRPlus™ microRNAs and represents yet another benefit for scientists using our miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays.
Highest microRNA coverage on the marketWith the launch of our 6th generation human, rat and mouse array, more miRPlus™ capture probes have been added. This means that the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array can now detect close to 1300 human microRNAs and an additional 146 human viral microRNAs (Table 1). This is by far the highest coverage of human microRNAs available on the market.
Table 1
| 1223 |
Mature human microRNAs |
| 146 |
Mature human viral microRNAs |
| 66 |
Mature miRPlus™ human microRNAs |
| 1435 |
Human microRNAs in total | Coverage of the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array. (Click to learn more)
Spike-in miRNA Kit v2 for data quality improvement The human, mouse and rat microRNA array includes a kit with 52 synthetic spike-in microRNAs that can be detected on the array by specifically designed capture probes. When the spike-in microRNAs are added to the labeling reactions before a dual-color array hybridization, the signals from the spike-in capture probes can be used:
- as a control for the labeling reaction and hybridization
- to calibrate/adjust scanner settings between channels
- as a control for the data normalization procedure
- to estimate the variance of replicated measurements within arrays
- to assess the technical variability between different parts of the array
Figure 10 illustrates the position of the 52 spike-in microRNAs in 1 µg total RNA.
In addition, the array contains capture probes for another 10 spike-in microRNAs, which can be used for further calibration or control of the profiling experiment.
Robust system with exceptionally high reproducibility
The miRCURY LNA™ Array features very high reproducibility through an optimized manufacturing process that ensures high quality uniform spots (Figure 11). This results in very low coefficient of variation (CV) values of the four replicate spots as well as excellent correlation between individual array slides (Figure 12). When used together with Exiqon's RNA labeling kits and following proper laboratory standards, median CV ≤ 10% can be obtained. Typically, Exiqon obtains median CV values of 2-4% even between different batches of the array. This allows researchers to use the array for single color experiments saving valuable sample and safely compare experiments performed at different times and over longer periods of time.
Dual or single-color experiments
The production of our latest, 6th generation, array has been further optimized in order to support single-color experiments. Table 2 summarizes some of the advantages of using single or dual color protocols. See our tech note on single color microarray analysis for more information.
Table 2
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Dual color |
- Lowess normalization reduces differences caused by experimental variation
- Lowess normalization reduces day-to-day variation
- Ratio data are typically more robust than absolute signals
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- With common reference: Can only be done on a limited project with known number of samples and requires double the amount of RNA.
- With universal reference: miRs expressed in samples but not in reference are measured inaccurately.
- Hy5 is sensitive to ozone and might pose problems especially in urban areas if counter measures have not been taken in the lab to ensure low ozone levels
- Requires double the amount of RNA sample than single color
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| Single color |
- Enables comparison across experiments
- Ability to add more samples to an experiment later
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- Requires extremely high lab standards and very reproducible handling of samples
- Experiments performed over a large time span are sensitive to minor lot-to-lot variations
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Validate your results with miRCURY LNA™ Universal RT microRNA PCR
Our qPCR system offers the best available combination of performance and ease-of-use on the microRNA qPCR market and is the ideal solution for validating your microarray results. The combination of a Universal RT reaction and LNA™-enhanced PCR primers results in unmatched sensitivity and specificity. The Ready-to-use microRNA PCR panels enable fast and easy microRNA expression profiling. (Figure 11). Identical positive controls on both platforms allows for robust cross-platform comparison of results
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Figure 1 LNA™ capture probes have a narrower Tm range than DNA probes. (Click to learn more)
Figure 2 LNA™ probes are less sensitive to variations in microRNA GC-content.(Click to learn more)
Figure 3 Drastically improved sensitivity over previous versions. (Click to learn more)
Figure 4 Detect substantially more microRNAs. (Click to learn more)
Figure 5
Detect the same number of microRNAs using half the RNA input. (Click to learn more)
Figure 6
Excellent correlation between different amounts of input RNA. (Click to learn more)
Figure 7 Discriminate between closely related microRNA families. (Click to learn more)
Figure 8
LNA™ based arrays detect microRNAs over a wide dynamic range. (Click to learn more)
Figure 9
Get access to the unique miRPlus™ microRNAs. (Click to learn more)
Figure 10 Thorough data quality assessment using the Spike-in miRNA Kits v2. (Click to learn more)
Figure 11
LNA™ based arrays generate highly reproducible results. (Click to learn more)
Figure 12
Excellent correlation between miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Arrays and PCR results. (Click to learn more) |
MicroRNA and diabetes
 “We found that Exiqon's LNA™ microRNA microarrays were versatile and easy to use"
Himawan Harryanto at the University of Adelaide, Australia, studies the effect of fetal growth restriction on the development of diabetes in adult life. He has used Exiqon's microRNA microarray system to profile microRNAs in the pancreas.
Changes in Gene Expression in Response to Starvation  “The miRNA Profiling Services at Exiqon has performed the technical aspects of the analysis, a task which requires time and specialized knowledge. This has allowed us to focus on the quality of biological aspects of the experiment.” Dr Tom Hamborg Nielsen, Associate Professor and group leader, and Dr. Maria Lundmark, Post Doctoral researcher, both work at the Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory at Copenhagen University, Denmark. They study how plants respond to phosphate starvation by changing their gene expression.
“Even microRNAs with a high level of similarity could be distinguished well using these arrays”
 “The results show some differentially regulated miRNAs and a nice overlap of expression regarding miRNAs encoded by a common primary transcript.”
Dr. Roman-Ulrich Müller, Zentrale Klinishe Forschung, Uniklinik Freiburg.
 “the miRCURY kit is really easy to use and we obtained good quality data” Dr Shane Murray is a plant genomics expert at the Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) in Cape Town, South Africa. The CPGR is a modern world class, high throughput biology research facility that provides state-of-the-art analytical services and technical expertise in the genomics and proteomics sectors.
Bali Muralidhar is working in Dr Nick Coleman's group at the Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit in Cambridge, UK. The group is investigating novel approaches to cancer diagnosis. This involves two main areas: - The development of novel markers for improved screening for cervical cancer and colorectal cancer.
- The mechanisms of cervical neoplastic progression.
Read full story...
"The superior detection sensitivity eliminates the need for RNA size selection”
 "More answers than questions when it comes to data analysis and interpretation."
Prof Martina Muckenthaler and Prof Matthias Hentze, University of Heidelberg and EMBL, Germany
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