Patent ID: 8304187

Claim:
A screening method for the identification of a disease state, comprising the steps of: contacting a drawn blood sample that includes a plurality of blood cells with a plasma RNA protective agent containing: from about 0.5% to about 2.5% by weight of aurintricarboxylic acid; from about 20% to about 30% by weight diazolidinyl urea; from about 0.05% to about 1.5% by weight sodium fluoride; from about 1% to about 8% by weight glyceraldehyde; and from about 5% to about 15% by weight EDTA for a time sufficient so that RNA synthesis is inhibited for at least two hours; blood cells of the drawn blood sample are fixed to prevent leaking of cellular RNA into the plasma; any cellular RNA that is within the blood cells at the time of the blood draw is preserved to immobilize the protein expression pattern of the blood cells so that the protein expression pattern of the cells remains the same as at the time of the blood draw; and cell-free RNA that is in the plasma is stabilized against degradation mediated by the combined action of nucleases and proteases; a. isolating the cell-free RNA from the blood sample; and b. analyzing the isolated RNA for the presence, absence, or severity of a disease state.