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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Dec 24.
Published in final edited form as: Clin Chem. 2018 Apr 23;64(7):1085–1095. doi: 10.1373/clinchem.2017.285072

Table 1.

Comparison of different RNA extraction kits.

RNA isolation kit miRNeasy Micro Kit TRIzol Plus RNA Purification Kit Quick-RNA MicroPrep kit QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit NucleoSpin miRNA kit mirVana miRNA Isolation Kit
Principle Phenol/guanidine-based and silica membrane-based method GITC-based method Nonphenol-based, Zymo-Spin column technology Nonphenol-based, silica membrane-based spin column or vacuum technology Nonphenol-based, silica membrane-based mini spin column technology Phenol-based, organic extraction with spin column technology (Glass Fiber Filter)
Combined method of organic extraction and spin filter clean up Organic extraction method Combined method of organic extraction and spin filter clean up Spin filter-based method Spin filter-based method Combined method of organic extraction and spin filter-based method
Size of RNAs Total RNA, including miRNA and other small RNAs (smaller than ~200 nucleotides) Total RNA Total RNA (including small RNAs 17–200 nucleotides) Total viral RNA greater than 200 nucleotides Total RNA including miRNA, siRNA, shRNAa (small RNA: <200 nucleotides, large RNA: >200 nucleotides) Total RNA including miRNA, siRNA, shRNA, and snRNA
Sample source Cultured cells, various animal and human tissues Animal and plant cells, tissue, bacteria, or yeast Any cells (animal, blood cells, etc.), all tissues, yeast, plant, or bacteria Plasma (treated not with heparin), serum, and other cell-free body fluids Cultured cells, human/animal tissue, plant tissue, <150 µL reaction mixture All cell and tissue types, bacteria, plants, viral samples, and yeast
a

shRNA, short (or small) hairpin RNA.