Measuring modified mRNA concentration for therapeutics

Researchers making advances in infectious disease vaccines and cancer therapeutics are shifting focus to incorporating mRNA due to its non-integrating nature and lack of nuclear localization requirements. However, mRNA can be functionally challenging for many applications due to its lower stability compared to DNA.

While improvements have been made to the molecular stability of RNA through a wide variety of efforts, some RNA modifications change the specific extinction coefficient or molecular weight, making the most commonly used concentration factor not always applicable. It is crucial to utilize the correct extinction coefficient for measuring concentration with UV-Vis spectrophotometry to ensure accurate and reproducible data.