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. 2023 Jan 13;10:1100892. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.1100892

TABLE 2.

Comparison of emerging isolation methods of exosomes.

Method Principles Purity Recovery Advantages Disadvantages References
Asymmetric Flow Field-Flow Fractionation Size High Relatively high Label-free Capacity limitation Manning et al. (2021)
Little damage to exosomes Required specialized equipment
Subpopulations can be isolated Co-isolation with non-EVs particles
Deterministic Lateral Displacement Size Low High Label-free Clogging membrane pores Smith et al. (2018); Hochstetter et al. (2020)
Time-saving Specific instrumentation
Labor-saving Co-isolation with non-EVs particles
Maintain the biological activity of exosomes
Dielectrophoretic Size Relatively low Relatively low Label-free Low purity Tayebi et al. (2021); Zhang et al. (2022a)
High selectivity The device will overheat
High controllability Tumor-derived exosomes are not separable
Little damage to exosomes
Acoustic Fractionation Size High Relatively high Simple Specialized instrumentation Wang et al. (2021)
Label-free Co-isolation with non-EVs particles
Good biocompatibility
Non-contact microfluidics Viscoelastic media flow Relatively high Relatively high Less contaminations Relatively low sensitivity Rodriguez-Quijada and Dahl, (2021)
Weak anti-interference ability
EXODUS Size High Relatively high Fast Capacity limitation Chen et al. (2021)
Specific binding No clogging Required expertise and specialized equipment
Repeatability
Isolation and detection integration
Exo-CMDS Charge High Relatively high Fast Membrane clogging Zhao et al. (2022)
Low cost Relatively expensive
High purity Co-isolation with non-EVs particles
High selectivity
3D ZnO Nanoarrays Acoustic fluid Relatively low Relatively low Fast Specialized Hao et al. (2020)
High sensitivity Relatively expensive
Multifunction
Downstream analysis is possible
Lipid microarrays Specific binding High Relatively low Fast Expensive Liu et al. (2021)
High sensitivity Low yield
Small volume samples Difficult to apply to the clinic
Inherent antifouling properties
Capture by immunomagnetic beads Size High Relatively low High purity Capacity limitation Cheng et al. (2022); Zhang et al. (2022c); Zheng et al. (2022)
Specific binding Maintain the biological activity and morphological integrity of exosomes Easy to combine with specific analysis tools Chelator adverse effects
Expensive
Membrane clogging
Co-isolation with non-EVs particles
Synthetic polypeptide Specific binding Relatively high Relatively low Clinical application Expensive Bathini et al. (2021)
Vn96 captures exosomes High-throughput analysis Low yield
Maintain the biological activity and morphological integrity of exosomes Relatively troublesome
ExoSD Size Relatively high Relatively high Relatively high purity Specialized Yu et al. (2021)
Multifunction Capacity limitation
Relatively high recovery rate
Capturing exosomes with covalent chemistry Covalent chemistry Relatively high Relatively low Fast and automatic Relatively complex Dong et al. (2020); Han et al. (2020); Liu et al. (2022b); Sun et al. (2022)
High efficiency Relatively expensive
Maintain the integrity of exosomes Relatively specialized
Easy to combine with specific analysis tools Not suitable for larger volume samples
Co-isolation with non-EVs particles
Downstream analysis may be affected