Extracellular small RNAs are widely detected in the circulation in large populations

In previous studies in humans, measurement of extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have primarily focused on microRNAs (miRNAs) or studied a small handful of subjects. The specific question of how large numbers of exRNAs are expressed in broader, non-diseased populations has remained. To examine this question, several groups from multiple institutions collaborated to measure exRNAs in the blood plasma of participants from the Framingham Heart Study, an observational cohort study based in Framingham, MA. In their recent publication (1), they first analyzed RNA sequencing data from the plasma of 40 individuals and identified over a thousand human exRNAs including miRNAs, piwi-interacting RNA (piRNAs), and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs).

Study Design

Although miRNAs have been commonly observed in the circulation and plasma, little is known about the presence of other common varieties of small human RNAs such as piRNAs and snoRNAs, known to be key components of molecular interactions and gene regulation in eukaryotes. Using a targeted RT-qPCR approach in an additional 2,763 individuals, the groups then characterized almost 500 of the most abundant extracellular RNA transcripts. The presence in plasma of many non-microRNA small RNAs was confirmed in this independent cohort. The findings show that diverse classes of circulating non-cellular small RNAs, beyond miRNAs, are consistently present in plasma from multiple human populations. Further work will determine how the presence of these exRNAs in the circulation correlates with the presence and progression of a broad number of human traits and diseases.

1. Freedman JE, Gerstein M, Mick E, Rozowsky J, Levy D, Kitchen R, Das S, Shah R, Danielson K, Beaulieu L, Navarro FCP, Wang Y, Galeev TR, Holman A,, Kwong RY, Murthy V, Tanriverdi SE, Koupenova-Zamor M, Mikalev E, Tanriverdi K. Diverse Human Extracellular RNAs are Widely Detected in Plasma. Nature Communications. Published online 26 April 2016.