Recent advances in acoustofluidic separation technology in biology

Abstract

Acoustofluidic separation of cells and particles is an emerging technology that integrates acoustics and microfluidics. In the last decade, this technology has attracted significant attention due to its biocompatible, contactless, and label-free nature. It has been widely validated in the separation of cells and submicron bioparticles and shows great potential in different biological and biomedical applications. This review first introduces the theories and mechanisms of acoustofluidic separation. Then, various applications of this technology in the separation of biological particles such as cells, viruses, biomolecules, and exosomes are summarized. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future prospects of this field.

Advanced technologies for molecular diagnosis of cancer: State of pre-clinical tumor-derived exosome liquid biopsies

“…Electroacoustic based methods can continuously separate small volume samples with less structural damage and sample loss than other methods, making this a promising approach for exosome separation [ 104 ]. One group has employed ultrasound to exert differential acoustic force to isolate exosomes from human blood products based on their size and density with a 90% isolation yield [ 105 ].…”

Surface acoustic wave based microfluidic devices for biological applications

“…Thus, acoustofluidic separation has become a very promising alternative used in research and clinical applications including micron-sized cells and submicron bioparticles. There are two kinds of Rayleigh SAW devices according to the separation principle, shown in Fig 2 50 . Traveling surface acoustic waves (TSAWs) are generated by IDTs on one side, flexible to manipulate and generate acoustic streaming to separate particles.…”

“…Correspondingly, the Rayleigh angle varies with the different tangential direction of the substrate. 36 The propagation of acoustic waves is a flow of wave energy. When the wave flow is interrupted, the acoustic radiation pressure will apply a force to the object in the direction of propagation.…”

“…2 Schematic diagrams of different types of surface acoustic waves. a: Acoustic streaming effect of traveling surface acoustic waves (TSAWs); b: acoustic streaming effect of standing surface acoustic waves (SSAWs) 50.…”

Endogenous Lipid Carriers—Bench-to-Bedside Roadblocks in Production and Drug Loading of Exosomes

“…With the increased interest in the use of exosomes as drug delivery tools, new approaches for post-secretory drug loading have been considered over the last few years. Wang et al developed an acoustofluidic device, which is a combination of fluid mechanics and acoustics, to perform both exosome drug loading and encapsulation with silica nanoparticles [ 39 , 106 , 107 , 108 ]. In this single-step process, drug loading significantly improved with a reported 70% efficacy [ 39 ].…”