Proteomics of Extracellular Vesicles: Recent Updates, Challenges and Limitations

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bound vesicles secreted by cells, including exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic bodies. Proteomic analyses of EVs, particularly in relation to cancer, reveal specific biomarkers crucial for diagnosis and therapy. However, isolation techniques such as ultracentrifugation, size-exclusion chromatography, and ultrafiltration face challenges regarding purity, contamination, and yield. Contamination from other proteins complicates downstream processing, leading to difficulties in identifying biomarkers and interpreting results. Future research will focus on refining EV characterization for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, improving proteomics tools for greater accuracy, and exploring the use of EVs in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. In this review, we provide a bird's eye view of various challenges, starting with EV isolation methods, yield, purity, and limitations in the proteome analysis of EVs for identifying protein targets.