At-home blood collection and stabilization in high temperature climates using home RNA

Lauren G Brown; Amanda J Haack; Dakota S Kennedy; Karen N Adams; Jennifer E Stolarczuk; Meg G Takezawa; Erwin Berthier; Sanitta Thongpang; Fang Yun Lim; Damien Chaussabel; Mathieu Garand; Ashleigh B Theberge

doi:10.3389/fdgth.2022.903153

At-home blood collection and stabilization in high temperature climates using home RNA

Front Digit Health. 2022 Aug 9:4:903153. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2022.903153. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Lauren G Brown¹, Amanda J Haack^{1

2}, Dakota S Kennedy¹, Karen N Adams³, Jennifer E Stolarczuk¹, Meg G Takezawa¹, Erwin Berthier¹, Sanitta Thongpang^{1

4}, Fang Yun Lim¹, Damien Chaussabel^{5

6}, Mathieu Garand^{5

7}, Ashleigh B Theberge^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
² School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
³ Institute of Translational Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, Nakorn Pathom, Thailand.
⁵ Research Branch, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar.
⁶ Computer Sciences Department, The Jackson Laboratory, Farmington, CT, United States.
⁷ Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
⁸ Department of Urology, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.

Abstract

Expanding whole blood sample collection for transcriptome analysis beyond traditional phlebotomy clinics will open new frontiers for remote immune research and telemedicine. Determining the stability of RNA in blood samples exposed to high ambient temperatures (>30°C) is necessary for deploying home-sampling in settings with elevated temperatures (e.g., studying physiological response to natural disasters that occur in warm locations or in the summer). Recently, we have developed homeRNA, a technology that allows for self-blood sampling and RNA stabilization remotely. homeRNA consists of a lancet-based blood collection device, the Tasso-SST™ which collects up to 0.5 ml of blood from the upper arm, and a custom-built stabilization transfer tube containing RNAlater™. In this study, we investigated the robustness of our homeRNA kit in high temperature settings via two small pilot studies in Doha, Qatar (no. participants = 8), and the Western and South Central USA during the summer of 2021, which included a heatwave of unusually high temperatures in some locations (no. participants = 11). Samples collected from participants in Doha were subjected to rapid external temperature fluctuations from being moved to and from air-conditioned areas and extreme heat environments (up to 41°C external temperature during brief temperature spikes). In the USA pilot study, regions varied in outdoor temperature highs (between 25°C and 43.4°C). All samples that returned a RNA integrity number (RIN) value from the Doha, Qatar group had a RIN ≥7.0, a typical integrity threshold for downstream transcriptomics analysis. RIN values for the Western and South Central USA samples (n = 12 samples) ranged from 6.9-8.7 with 9 out of 12 samples reporting RINs ≥7.0. Overall, our pilot data suggest that homeRNA can be used in some regions that experience elevated temperatures, opening up new geographical frontiers in disseminated transcriptome analysis for applications critical to telemedicine, global health, and expanded clinical research. Further studies, including our ongoing work in Qatar, USA, and Thailand, will continue to test the robustness of homeRNA.

Keywords: RNA stabilization; global health; high temperature sampling; home blood sampling; personalized medicine.

Grants and funding

P30 ES007033/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States