Reversed-phase ion-pair liquid chromatography analysis and purification of small interfering RNA

Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-induced gene silencing shows great promise in genomic research and therapeutic applications. siRNA duplexes are typically assembled from complementary synthetic oligonucleotides. High-purity single-stranded species are required for in vivo applications. Methods for separation, characterization, and purification of short RNA strands have been developed based on reversed-phase ion-pair liquid chromatography. The purification strategies were developed for both single-stranded and duplex RNA species. The method of duplex purification uses on-column annealing of complementary RNA strands, followed by separation of the target duplex from truncated duplexes and single-stranded RNA forms. The proposed method significantly reduces the purification time of synthetic siRNA.