Do you have any special recommendations for isolating viral RNA from breast milk?
Do you have any special recommendations for isolating viral RNA from breast milk?
Both milk and plasma are protein-rich fluids and can be treated as similar/equivalent biological fluids with regard to their biochemical properties. Therefore we recommend the NucleoSpin RNA Virus Kit (REF 740956/.50/.250) for this application. The NucleoSpin RNA Virus kit is designed for highly pure viral nucleic acids from fluid biological samples, for example plasma or serum.
Please note that depending on the fat content within the milk sample, a fat layer might form on top of the sample. This fat layer can be removed after centrifugation in step 1 of the standard protocol to avoid clogging of the membrane (section 5.1 in user's manual):
Customers could also use the NucleoSpin RNA Blood kit (REF 740200.50). Again, depending on fat content of the milk the fat layer on top of the sample should be removed after a short centrifugation in step 1 of the standard protocol (section 5.1 in user's manual).
The NucleoSpin miRNA kit (REF 740971/.50/.250) was also successfully tested by a customer for total RNA extraction from milk following the support protocol for biological fluids (section 5.3 of user manual). They we're using human and animal milk, but were not specifically looking for viral RNA.