查看文章

Identifying small extracellular vesicle (sEV) subpopulations based on their different molecular signatures could potentially reveal the functional roles in physiology and pathology. However, it is a challenge to achieve this aim due to the nano-sized dimensions of sEVs, low quantities of biological cargo each sEV carries, and our incomplete knowledge of identifying features capable of separating heterogeneous sEV subpopulations. Here, a sensitive, multiplexed, and nano-mixing-enhanced sEV subpopulation characterization platform (ESCP) is proposed to precisely determine the sEV phenotypic heterogeneity and understand the role of sEV heterogeneity in cancer progression and metastasis. The ESCP utilizes spatially patterned anti-tetraspanin-functionalized micro-arrays for sEV subpopulation sorting and nanobarcode-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for multiplexed read-outs. An ESCP has been …