Millipore Corporation has launched the Magna RIP RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP) kit, which provides a complete solution for the entire RIP workflow.
With this kit, any researcher, even those inexperienced in RNA purification, can investigate the dynamics of ribonucleoprotein assembly as it occurs inside the cell.
Cells respond to stimuli by altering gene expression and RNA-protein complexes drive almost all processes regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level, including splicing, nuclear export, mRNA stability and translation.
Therefore, understanding gene regulation depends on characterising the changes in RNA binding in these various processes.
Traditionally, RNA-protein interactions have been identified by screening libraries in yeast or bacteria or by in-vitro selection, all confounded by system limitations, biases or artefacts.
In contrast, information obtained from RIP shows increased biological relevance, enabling researchers to achieve their goals more quickly.
Dr Robert Nakamura, chief executive officer of Advanced Genetic Systems, a biotechnology company validating RNA-protein complexes as therapeutic targets, said: 'We know that an RNA-binding protein can bind different RNA targets depending on physiological context.
'By isolating intact complexes from cells, we can identify the specific interactions between molecules and potentially disrupt these interactions for therapeutic benefits,' he added.
The RIP application can be viewed as the RNA-based analogue of the ChIP application (chromatin immunoprecipitation), which identifies DNA targets of DNA-binding proteins.
RIP involves immunoprecipitating proteins, then purifying and characterising their associated RNAs.
As a result of the heightened awareness of RNA's role in gene regulation, the development of higher-throughput RNA identification methods, the validation of more antibodies against RNA-binding proteins and now the availability of RIP kits, the pace of RIP-based research is expected to accelerate.
Millipore's Magna RIP kit contains all the reagents needed to quantitatively isolate RNA-protein complexes with full-length intact RNAs.
Reagents include protein A/G magnetic beads optimised to bind nucleic-acid-protein-immune complexes, RNAse inhibitors, RNAse-free buffers and positive and negative controls.
Millipore also offers specially designed RIPAb+ validated antibody/primer sets, RIP-validated antibodies and more than 80 other antibodies recognising RBPs.
