Graphene Oxide as a Bifunctional Material toward Superior RNA Protection and Extraction

It is well known that graphene oxide (GO), a planar nanomaterial, is endowed with the capacity to immobilize short ssRNA via π-π stacking, thus enhancing its stability. However, whether large RNA molecules, such as total RNA, extracted from biological tissues can be protected using GO has not been investigated. It is usually believed that the protection of total RNA by GO is not effective because the lengths of total RNA, which range from a few to thousands of bases, are inclined to undergo desorption due to their complicated structure. Herein, the nanobiological effects of total RNA/GO are first investigated and demonstrate that the total RNA can be harbored on the surface of GO, thus resulting in a shield effect. This shield effect allows total RNA to highly resist RNase degradation and maintain RNA stability at room temperature up to 4 days, enabling the discovery of GO as the potential next-generation RNase nanoinhibitor. Furthermore, GO can be conjugated to nanomagnetic beads, defined as magnetic graphene oxide, enabling the rapid purification and protection of RNA from animal cells and tissues, whole blood, bacteria, and plant tissue.