Table 2.

Comparison of existing technologies for plasma membrane isolation

Isolation methodologies	Advantages	Disadvantages
Density Gradient Centrifugation	Conventional method that can be used to isolate plasma membrane along with other subcellular compartments Effective method to isolate lysosomes from tissue or in vivo cell fractions Simple procedure that can be performed using an ultracentrifuge	Low yield and low purity Cannot isolate intact membrane layers Not efficient for isolating cell membrane lipids and for performing functional studies
Cationic silica based isolation	Classical method used to isolate cell membrane layers with high purity Generic method used to isolate cell membrane from tissue, in vitro and in vivo Formation of matrix by the use of polylysine crosslinker helps in the isolation of membrane layers without any breakage	Low yield Isolates only available membrane layer i:e only 50 % of cell surface of adherent cells grown on a petri dish Not robust to perform lipidomics, glycomics and native condition experiments
Cell Surface biotinylation based pull-down assay	Generic method that targets cell surface lysine residue Can be used in combination with magnetic or non-magnetic beads Can be used in combination to isolate endosomal compartments	Can isolate only available membrane layer i:e only 50 % of cell surface of adherent cells growing on a petri dish Technology has not been established to isolate cell membrane from cell suspension Requires detergent in fractionations
Antibody conjugated magnetic nanoparticle based pulldown assay	Can be used to pull down proteins after post-fractionation Can also be used to target selective micro-domains Can be used in combination with biotin-streptavidin assay	Isolates only available membrane layer (only 50 % surface of adherent cells on a petri dish Technology has not been established to isolate cell membrane from cell suspension requires detergent in fractionations
SPMNPs based plasma membrane isolation;	A novel strategy that is generic for any kind of cell systems Method does not involve use of detergent or antibody that affects the nativity of membranes Method can also use targeted plasma membrane micro-domain by using ligand-tagging Can be used to isolate protein under native conditions which can hence be used for functional studies Can isolate cell membrane lipids Can perform, first of its kind, cell membrane glycosylation High yield and high purity Can be used in combination with endosomal isolations	Technology has not be established for tissue cell membrane isolation and in vivo experiments Isolates only available membrane layer (only 50 % surface of adherent cells on a petri dish Technology has not been established to isolate cell membrane from cell suspension. Possibility exists to use this technology for cells in suspension culture