PolyUracil Membranes for Rapid and Effective RNA Purification

Abstract

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) plays a critically important role in cellular defense, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) replication, transcription, and gene expression for living organisms as well as, a lot of diseases such as cancer, immunodeficiency, tumors has been associated with RNA's disruption. For this purpose, supermacropores membranes were designed to purify RNA using nucleotide-based ligand. In this study, polymerizable uracil monomer as uracil methacrylate (UraM) was synthesized, and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA)-based membranes [poly(HEMA-UraM)] were prepared by bulk polymerization under partially frozen conditions by copolymerization of monomers, UraM, and HEMA. These membranes were characterized via swelling studies, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). To optimize separation conditions, effects of pH, initial RNA concentration, time, and temperature on RNA adsorption capacity were examined. Maximum adsorption of RNA on poly(HEMA-UraM) membrane was found to be 15.52 mg/g for 0.5 mg/mL RNA initial concentration at 25.0°C with an optimum pH of 7.0. After ten repetitive adsorption-desorption cycles, the RNA adsorption capacity decreased only 3.68%.