Recent advances and challenges in the recovery and purification of cellular exosomes

Abstract

Exosomes are nanovesicles secreted by most cellular types that carry important biochemical compounds throughout the body with different purposes, playing a preponderant role in cellular communication. Because of their structure, physicochemical properties and stability, recent studies are focusing in their use as nanocarriers for different therapeutic compounds for the treatment of different diseases ranging from cancer to Parkinson's disease. However, current bioseparation protocols and methodologies are selected based on the final exosome application or intended use and present both advantages and disadvantages when compared among them. In this context, this review aims to present the most important technologies available for exosome isolation while discussing their advantages and disadvantages and the possibilities of being combined with other strategies. This is critical since the development of novel exosome‐based therapeutic strategies will be constrained to the effectiveness and yield of the selected downstream purification methodologies for which a thorough understanding of the available technological resources is needed.

Progress of Research on Exosomes in the Protection Against Ischemic Brain Injury

“…Given the substantial differences in exosome size and surface markers, the methods for separation of exosomes must have high specificity and high efficiency. The commonly used methods of separation include ultracentrifugation, ultrafiltration, precipitation, immunoaffinity procedures and microfluidics (Ayala-Mar et al, 2019).…”

Molecular evaluation of five different isolation methods for extracellular vesicles reveals different clinical applicability and subcellular origin

“…Previously, sequential ultracentrifugation, or density gradient ultracentrifugation for a preparation with less co‐isolated entities, have been the most used methods for isolating EVs. However, nowadays several other methods such as size exclusion chromatography are widely used (Ayala‐Mar et al., 2019 ; Boriachek et al., 2018 ; Doyle & Wang, 2019 ).…”

Roles for Exosome in Various Kidney Diseases and Disorders

“…However, isolation or purification of exosomes from animal model or raw biological fluids is still challenging because some components, such as high-density lipoproteins, chylomicrons, and microvesicles, have their size ranges close to that of exosomes (Yuana et al, 2014). Recently, several efforts have been made to optimize the isolation/purification of exosomes (Gheinani et al, 2018;Ayala-Mar et al, 2019;Doyle and Wang, 2019;Hou et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019a;Yang et al, 2019). Nevertheless, the outcome is still unsatisfactory.…”