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Updated: Jan 9, 2026
Rapid Fluorescence-based Characterization of Single Extracellular Vesicles in Human Blood with Nanoparticle-tracking Analysis
Published on: January 7, 2019
Ultrasensitive Profiling of Extracellular Vesicles by a Microbead- and Aptamer-Enhanced Thermophoretic Assay for
Yike Li1,2, Yan Li1,3, Min Ying4
1Beijing Engineering Research Center for BioNanotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
Abstract:
Longitudinal monitoring of therapeutic responses is essential for optimizing treatment strategies and improving outcomes in cancer patients. Profiling tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tEVs) can provide critical information for effective and timely treatment monitoring. Here, we report a microbead- and aptamer-enhanced thermophoretic (BEAT) assay for ultrasensitive protein profiling of HER2, PSMA, CEA, and VEGF on EVs in clinical settings. The BEAT assay combined efficient EV capture by microbeads and specific protein labeling by fluorescent aptamer probes in one pot. The thermophoretic enrichment of microbead-EV-aptamer complexes markedly amplified the fluorescence signal from EVs, achieving a limit of detection (LoD) as low as 41 EVs μL-1. In clinical cohorts, the protein profiles of tEVs quantified by the BEAT assay enabled the discrimination of HER2-positive breast cancer (HER2+ BC) patients from healthy donors (HDs) and longitudinal monitoring of therapeutic responses with 100% accuracy, outperforming the serum biomarker CA 15-3. This work represents a significant advancement in the profiling of tEVs for noninvasive and precise therapeutic monitoring of cancer.
