Quantification and size-profiling of extracellular vesicles using tunable resistive pulse sensing

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including 'microvesicles' and 'exosomes', are highly abundant in bodily fluids. Recent years have witnessed a tremendous increase in interest in EVs. EVs have been shown to play important roles in various physiological and pathological processes, including coagulation, immune responses, and cancer. In addition, EVs have potential as therapeutic agents, for instance as drug delivery vehicles or as regenerative medicine. Because of their small size (50 to 1,000 nm) accurate quantification and size profiling of EVs is technically challenging. This protocol describes how tunable resistive pulse sensing (tRPS) technology, using the qNano system, can be used to determine the concentration and size of EVs. The method, which relies on the detection of EVs upon their transfer through a nano sized pore, is relatively fast, suffices the use of small sample volumes and does not require the purification and concentration of EVs. Next to the regular operation protocol an alternative approach is described using samples spiked with polystyrene beads of known size and concentration. This real-time calibration technique can be used to overcome technical hurdles encountered when measuring EVs directly in biological fluids.