Electrochemical Resistive-Pulse Sensing of Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from biological cells have attracted considerable interest due to their potential for cancer diagnostics and important role in cell signaling. Most previously reported studies have been concerned with the detection of EVs in biofluids and analysis of proteins and nucleic acids they contain. Electrochemical resistive-pulse (ERP) sensing enables direct detection of single EVs released from a specific cell and analysis of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in such vesicles. Here, we demonstrate the applicability of ERP sensing to distinguish between nontransformed and cancerous breast cell lines as well as between breast cancer cell lines with different metastatic potential. Another application of ERP sensing is in real-time monitoring of changes in a single cell induced by a chemical agent. This approach is potentially useful for evaluating the efficacy of therapeutic agents, including those that trigger breast cancer cell death by inducing intense oxidative stress.