B-378 Cell-free Plasma Preparation Workflow Solution

Abstract

Abstract Background Liquid biopsy for the study and monitoring of various cancers has become a growing area of study, pre-analytical sample handling can impact the quality and profile of the circulating tumor nucleic acid. Preparing samples like cell-free plasma for downstream assays is imperative to maintaining quality in downstream applications for clinical research in oncology. To obtain cell-free plasma, blood samples must undergo centrifugation at 2000g for 10 min at 4C followed by a second spin for 30 min at 4C. This two-step spin process presents an issue with labs that don’t have a refrigerated centrifuge suitable for higher speeds. Methods Here, we perform a series of studies to investigate the impact of various spin conditions on cell-free nucleic acid recovery and quality. Four plasma centrifugation methods encompassing variables attributing to speed, temperature, and number of centrifugations steps, were evaluated from whole blood tubes obtained from six donors in K2EDTA upfront of nucleic acid isolation with MagMAX™ cell-free TNA nucleic acid isolation chemistry on a KingFisher™ magnetic particle processor. Yield, quality, and functional performance was evaluated from the extracted cell-free nucleic acid and compared across all plasma spin-down methods. Result Study results indicated that centrifugation of plasma at lower speeds for a shorter period at room temperature had no negative impact to nucleic acid recovery and integrity. Conclusion Here, we offer a plasma spin workflow solution to mid- to high- throughput clinical research labs to allow versatility within the laboratory setup. Reducing the need for refrigerated centrifugation allows clinical researchers to obtain high-quality cfNA suitable for their downstream applications in clinical oncology and genomics research.