Microfluidics-Based Technologies for Extracellular Vesicle Research

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano-sized lipid vesicles carrying a variety of protein and nucleic acid cargo from parent cells. EVs have recently attracted much attention as potential sources of novel cancer biomarkers. However, current methods for EV isolation and molecular analysis are less compatible with clinical practice owing to requirements for expensive instrumentation, time-consuming protocols, relatively large sample consumption, and limited sensitivity and specificity in the detection of EV-associated biomarkers. Microfluidics provides a promising solution to these challenges by offering several advantages, including high-level integration, precise manipulation of bioparticles, and small sample consumption. In this chapter, we summarize recent advances in the development of microfluidic platforms for isolation of EVs with high recovery and purity and for quantitative analysis of EV proteins and nucleic acids with high sensitivity, even at the single-EV level using state-of-the-art sensing strategies. The promising biomedical and clinical applications of these platforms are also highlighted. We believe that microfluidics-based EV isolation and biomarker analysis may have applications in fundamental research and could pave the way for the implementation of EV-based liquid biopsy in routine clinical settings.