CandyCollect: An Open-Microfluidic Device for the Direct Capture and Analysis of Salivary-Extracellular Vesicles

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Nanotechnology
• Molecular Biology

Background:

• Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) are crucial for intercellular communication and are promising disease biomarkers found in biofluids.
• Saliva is a valuable biofluid for EV isolation, but its complexity hinders traditional methods.
• Existing platforms face challenges in isolating pure EVs from complex saliva samples.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce CandyCollect, a microfluidic device for non-invasive salivary EV capture.
• To simplify the pre-concentration, elution, and detection of EVs from saliva.
• To enable downstream analysis of EV cargo for disease detection applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized CandyCollect, a lollipop-inspired device with open microfluidic channels for salivary EV capture.
• Employed cholesterol-tagged oligonucleotides for EV labeling and qPCR for enumeration.
• Demonstrated downstream EV cargo analysis using Simoa technology.

Main Results:

• CandyCollect effectively captures and pre-concentrates EVs from saliva on-device.
• The method allows for simplified EV elution, labeling, and qPCR-based enumeration.
• Successful downstream analysis of EV cargo using Simoa was demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• CandyCollect offers a patient-friendly and efficient alternative for salivary EV isolation.
• This technology streamlines EV capture, enumeration, and analysis from complex biofluids.
• The developed method advances the potential of salivary EVs as accessible biomarkers.