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The impact of RNA extraction method on accurate RNA sequencing from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Utilization of RNA sequencing methods to measure gene expression from archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor samples in translational research and clinical trials requires reliable interpretation of the impact of pre-analytical variables on the data obtained, particularly the methods used to preserve samples and to purify RNA. METHODS:Matched tissue samples from 12 breast cancers were fresh frozen (FF) and preserved in RNAlater or fixed in formalin and processed as FFPE tissue. Total RNA was extracted and purified from FF samples using the Qiagen RNeasy kit, and in duplicate from FFPE tissue sections using three different kits (Norgen, Qiagen and Roche). All RNA samples underwent whole transcriptome RNA sequencing (wtRNAseq) and targeted RNA sequencing for 31 transcripts included in a signature of sensitivity to endocrine therapy. We assessed the effect of RNA extraction kit on the reliability of gene expression levels using linear mixed-effects model analysis, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and differential analysis. All protein-coding genes in the wtRNAseq and three gene expression signatures for breast cancer were assessed for concordance. RESULTS:Despite variable quality of the RNA extracted from FFPE samples by different kits, all had similar concordance of overall gene expression from wtRNAseq between matched FF and FFPE samples (median CCC 0.63-0.66) and between technical replicates (median expression difference 0.13-0.22). More than half of genes were differentially expressed between FF and FFPE, but with low fold change (median |LFC| 0.31-0.34). Two out of three breast cancer signatures studied were highly robust in all samples using any kit, whereas the third signature was similarly discordant irrespective of the kit used. The targeted RNAseq assay was concordant between FFPE and FF samples using any of the kits (CCC 0.91-0.96). CONCLUSIONS:The selection of kit to purify RNA from FFPE did not influence the overall quality of results from wtRNAseq, thus variable reproducibility of gene signatures probably relates to the reliability of individual gene selected and possibly to the algorithm. Targeted RNAseq showed promising performance for clinical deployment of quantitative assays in breast cancer from FFPE samples, although numerical scores were not identical to those from wtRNAseq and would require calibration.

SUBMITTER: Marczyk M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6896723 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of RNA extraction method on accurate RNA sequencing from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

Marczyk Michal M Fu Chunxiao C Lau Rosanna R Du Lili L Trevarton Alexander J AJ Sinn Bruno V BV Gould Rebekah E RE Pusztai Lajos L Hatzis Christos C Symmans W Fraser WF

BMC cancer 20191205 1

<h4>Background</h4>Utilization of RNA sequencing methods to measure gene expression from archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor samples in translational research and clinical trials requires reliable interpretation of the impact of pre-analytical variables on the data obtained, particularly the methods used to preserve samples and to purify RNA.<h4>Methods</h4>Matched tissue samples from 12 breast cancers were fresh frozen (FF) and preserved in RNAlater or fixed in formalin and p ...[more]

PMID: 31805884

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Project description:RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) provides a comprehensive quantification of transcriptomic activities in biological samples. Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) samples are collected as part of routine clinical procedure, and are the most widely available biological sample format in medical research and patient care. Normalization is an essential step in RNA-seq data analysis. A number of normalization methods, though developed for RNA-seq data from fresh frozen (FF) samples, can be used with FFPE samples as well. The only extant normalization method specifically designed for FFPE RNA-seq data, MIXnorm, which has been shown to outperform the normalization methods, but at the cost of a complex mixture model and a high computational burden. It is therefore important to adapt MIXnorm for simplicity and computational efficiency while maintaining superior performance. Furthermore, it is critical to develop an integrated tool that performs commonly used normalization methods for both FF and FFPE RNA-seq data. We developed a new normalization method for FFPE RNA-seq data, named SMIXnorm, based on a simplified two-component mixture model compared to MIXnorm to facilitate computation. The expression levels of expressed genes are modeled by normal distributions without truncation, and those of non-expressed genes are modeled by zero-inflated Poisson distributions. The maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters are obtained by a nested Expectation-Maximization algorithm with a less complicated latent variable structure, and closed-form updates are available within each iteration. Real data applications and simulation studies show that SMIXnorm greatly reduces computing time compared to MIXnorm, without sacrificing the performance. More importantly, we developed a web-based tool, RNA-seq Normalization (RSeqNorm), that offers a simple workflow to compute normalized RNA-seq data for both FFPE and FF samples. It includes SMIXnorm and MIXnorm for FFPE RNA-seq data, together with five commonly used normalization methods for FF RNA-seq data. Users can easily upload a raw RNA-seq count matrix and select one of the seven normalization methods to produce a downloadable normalized expression matrix for any downstream analysis. The R package is available at https://github.com/S-YIN/RSEQNORM. The web-based tool, RSeqNorm is available at http://lce.biohpc.swmed.edu/rseqnorm with no restriction to use or redistribute.

Dataset Information

The impact of RNA extraction method on accurate RNA sequencing from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

Publications

The impact of RNA extraction method on accurate RNA sequencing from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

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