Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit

The superb performance of Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit has been extensively validated.  Please review the examples of publications and performance data below.  For a full list of publications, please visit the Publications page.

cfDNA is a group of highly fragmented DNA molecules, with major peak at ~170bp, doublet peak at ~340bp, triplet peak at ~510bp, and so on. Therefore, cfDNA isolation kit capable of highly efficient cfDNA isolation spanning wide cfDNA size distribution is desired. Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation Kit meets such need as demonstrated from its >95% recovery of DNA ladder. This is further validated through isolation of natural cfDNA from human plasma (Exhibit 1A) and urine samples (Exhibit 1B), where Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation Kit offers superior cfDNA isolation efficiency over wide range, specifically covering the 170bp, 340bp, and 510bp cfDNA peaks, when compared with major alternative product.  Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit enables superior and consistent performance of DNA mutation detection, validated by qPCR (Exhibit 2).

Apostle MiniMaxTM technology offers a best-in-class efficiency and purity compared with conventional technologies to capture and isolate the circulating cell-free genetic materials. It has been trusted by many of the world's most prestigious leaders in life sciences.

"...This includes recognizing that an innovative product from a startup like Apostle is the best technology to address these needs." said Steve Wowk, Director of Genomics, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences.

A) Cell-free plasma was separated from blood samples by centrifugation for 10 minutes at 2000g at 4oC, then centrifuged for 10 minutes at 16000g at 4oC. cfDNA was isolated from 4mL plasma with Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation Kit (red curve) and major alternative product (blue curve). The isolated cfDNA was characterized by Bioanalyzer 2100. 

B) Cell-free urine was prepared by centrifugation for 10 minutes at 16000g at 4oC. cfDNA was isolated from 20mL urine with Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation Kit (red curve) and major alternative product (blue curve). The isolated cfDNA was characterized by Bioanalyzer 2100. Apostle MiniMaxTM High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation Kit offers superior cfDNA isolation efficiency for both plasma and urine samples.

20 uL of DNA fragment containing the EGFR c.2573T>G L858R mutation (synthetic, ~170 bp), with concentration of 1 ng/uL, 0.1 ng/uL, 0.01 ng/uL, 0.001 ng/uL, was spiked into 1mL TE buffer (blue) or Serum (red) respectively. The mutated DNA fragment was isolated with Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit (Standard Edition), with a final elution volume of 20 uL. qPCR was performed using 1 uL of the isolated DNA, and compared with 1 uL of the corresponding original mutated DNA solution at 1 ng/uL, 0.1 ng/uL, 0.01 ng/uL, 0.001 ng/uL. 

A) Amplification plot showing highly overlapping curves for mutated DNA fragment isolated with Apostle MiniMaxTM High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit and original DNA solution at different concentrations. 

B) qPCR standard curve generated using original mutated DNA solution, in order to quantify the recovery of DNA isolated with Apostle MiniMax High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit. DNA isolation recovery rate was calculated to be >90%. 

Note: Displayed DNA concentration series at 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 ng/ul are the concentrations of the original DNA dilution series before spiking into 1mL of serum. The corresponding DNA isolation working concentrations are 20 pg/ul, 2 pg/ul, 0.2 pg/ul, 0.02 pg/ul, respectively.

Apostle MiniMax technology has been applied in world-class research and development projects of novel liquid biopsy technologies.  Some examples include: 

• Efficient detection and post-surgical monitoring of colon cancer with a multi-marker DNA methylation liquid biopsy. Jin et al. PNAS February 2, 2021 118 (5) e2017421118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017421118 
  

Multiplex assays, involving the simultaneous use of multiple circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) markers, can improve the performance of liquid biopsies so that they are highly predictive of cancer recurrence. We have developed a single-tube methylation-specific quantitative PCR assay (mqMSP) that uses 10 different methylation markers and is capable of quantitative analysis of plasma samples with as little as 0.05% tumor DNA. In a cohort of 179 plasma samples from colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, adenoma patients, and healthy controls, the sensitivity and specificity of the mqMSP assay were 84.9% and 83.3%, respectively. In a head-to-head comparative study, the mqMSP assay also performed better for detecting early-stage (stage I and II) and premalignant polyps than a published SEPT9 assay. In an independent longitudinal cohort of 182 plasma samples (preoperative, postoperative, and follow-up) from 82 CRC patients, the mqMSP assay detected ctDNA in 73 (89.0%) of the preoperative plasma samples. Postoperative detection of ctDNA (within 2 wk of surgery) identified 11 of the 20 recurrence patients and was associated with poorer recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio, 4.20; P = 0.0005). With subsequent longitudinal monitoring, 14 patients (70%) had detectable ctDNA before recurrence, with a median lead time of 8.0 mo earlier than seen with radiologic imaging. The mqMSP assay is cost-effective and easily implementable for routine clinical monitoring of CRC recurrence, which can lead to better patient management after surgery. 

• Segmental duplication as potential biomarkers for non-invasive prenatal testing of aneuploidies. Chen et al. EBioMedicine August 11, 2021; https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(21)00328-5/fulltext

We developed a computational program whereby available SD regions can be processed and analyzed efficiently for their potential use as biomarkers of the aneuploidy of interest. For the five common aneuploidies, i.e., trisomy 13, 18, 21, and two sex chromosome aneuploidies, a total of 21,772 candidate SD biomarker sequences together with their corresponding primer/probe sets were generated. The primer/probe sets were tested using a real-time PCR-based multicolour melting curve analysis for simultaneous detection of the five common aneuploidies, and yielded 100% clinical sensitivity and 99.64% specificity when subjected to a clinical evaluation. Following the observations that the SD biomarkers for aneuploidy could be better detected by digital PCR with improved accuracy, we established a noninvasive prenatal testing protocol for trisomy 21 and attained 100% concordance with next generation sequencing.

Our study confirmed that SD regions are preferred biomarkers for aneuploidy detection and in particular SD-based digital PCR could find potential use for NIPT of trisomy. A similar strategy can be applied to other chromosomal abnormality and genetic disorders.

Apostle also partners with Beckman Coulter to offer the Apostle MiniMaxTM High Efficiency Isolation Kit. If you wish to order the kit through Beckman Coulter, please visit Beckman Coulter's website:

 
https://www.beckman.com/reagents/genomic/dna-isolation/from-plasma

For more information about this partnership: https://www.beckman.com/news/liquid-biopsy-partnership-with-apostle

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