Microfluidic strategies for the isolation and profiling of exosomes

Exosomes are nanoscale extracellular vesicles carrying various cargos, which play a significant rule in intercellular communication, disease diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, heterogeneous/functional identity and clinical application of exosomes are hampered due to the lack of effective separation protocols from complex matrixes. The development of suitable platforms is indispensable for the manipulation and profiling of exosomes. Among those, microfluidic systems have been demonstrated to be among the most ideal strategies. The present review discussed the recent progresses of microfluidic-based protocols for the precise manipulation and effective separation of exosomes, including immune-affinity-based microchip, size-based micro-device, and multi-approaches integration microfluidic device. The combination of advanced techniques with nano/microfluidic chip for individual exosomes imaging or assay and the isolation of single exosome with microfluidics are presented. The opportunities and challenges of intelligent algorithms and machine learning in multi-dimensional profiling of individual exosomes are also highlighted. This review presents the recent progress of microfluidic strategies for the isolation of exosomes, e.g., immune-affinity-based micro-device, size-based microchip and multi-approaches integration microfluidic platform. The integration of nano/microfluidic chip with advanced techniques for individual exosomes profiling are introduced. The great potential of microfluidic-based strategies for the separation and assay of single exosomes is prospected. [Display omitted] •State-of-the-art advances of microfluidic strategies for exosomes isolation and profiling are overviewed.•Microfluidic-based strategies for the isolation of exosomes are discussed.•High-resolution imaging techniques combined with microfluidic chip for single exosomes profiling are depicted.•Prospects of the intelligent algorithm for individual exosomes analysis are illustrated.