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A Cost-Effective, Kit-Free Method for Extracting Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA From Low-Abundance Cells in Urine Samples.

Created on 25 Oct 2026

Authors

Yoshitaka Yamaguchi, Koichi Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Suzuki, Junko Nomoto, Hironori Katayama

Published in

Cureus. Volume 18. Issue 9. Pages e116804. Epub Sep 23, 2026.

Abstract

This study evaluates a simplified, cost-effective DNA extraction protocol using only 10% sodium chloride (NaCl) and Proteinase K (ProK) to isolate both nuclear DNA (nuDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from low-abundance cells in human urine, providing an open-source alternative to expensive commercial kits. Urine samples from six healthy participants were centrifuged, washed with phosphate-buffered saline, lysed with the NaCl/ProK mixture at 60°C overnight, and recovered via ethanol precipitation. To validate downstream applicability, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification was performed targeting the nuclear FGFR3 (423 bp) and the mitochondrial D-loop regions (HV-1: 634 bp, HV-2: 520 bp), followed by agarose gel electrophoresis and Sanger sequencing. The extracted DNA concentrations ranged from undetected to 146.0 μg/mL. PCR amplification of the nuclear FGFR3 succeeded in five out of six samples (83.3%), while the mitochondrial regions (HV-1 and HV-2) achieved a 100% success rate, yielding robust bands even in the sample with undetectable initial genomic DNA. Sanger sequencing and Basic Local Alignment Search Tool search confirmed 100% (FGFR3), 99.4% (HV-1), and 97.8% (HV-2) homology with reference sequences (National Center for Biotechnology Information: NC_012920.1). In conclusion, sequence-ready nuDNA and mtDNA can be successfully extracted using this minimal-reagent, kit-free method. The significantly higher sensitivity of mtDNA highlights its potential for non-invasive genetic diagnostics and point-of-care liquid biopsy in low-biomass specimens.

PMID:
42927000
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Oct 2026.

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