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Table 3 New technologies for exosomal nucleic acid detection

From: Exosomes as a new frontier of cancer liquid biopsy

Methods

Exosome sources

Sample volume

Nucleic acids

Detection mechanism

Advantages

Disadvantages

Ref.

Droplet digital PCR

Urine

2 mL

miRNA; gene variation

Nucleic acid amplification of droplets in an oil emulsion

Absolute quantification; small sample volume; high accuracy and sensitivity;

High-cost; limited throughout; complex operation

[163]

Cerebrospinal fluid of GBM patients

1 mL

IDH1 mutation

[164]

Plasma samples of HCC patients and control cohorts

90 μL

HCC-specific mRNA

[61]

Cancer cell lines and patient plasma

2 μL

GAPDH mRNA

[165]

Human plasma

 

miR-15a-5p

[40]

Human plasma

 

PGR mRNA; ESR1 mRNA; ERBB2 mRNA

[120]

Clinical blood

1.5 mL

EV-lncRNA of SLC9A3-AS1 and PCAT6

[166]

Serum

100 μL

circHIPK3 and circSM ARCA5

[167]

Molecular beacons

Cancer cells and human serums

35 μL

miRNA-21

Fluorescent, enzyme-labeled oligonucleotide probes identifying and detecting nucleic acid with complementary sequences

High specificity, simplicity; low background fluorescence; rapid detection

High-cost; limited throughout

[122]

Breast cancer cell line and human plasma

 

miR-21; miR-375; and miR-27a

[121]

Prostate cancer cells and human urine

 

miRNA-375 and miRNA-574-3p

[168]

Human plasma

10 μL

miR-1246

[169]

RBC-derived EVs

 

miRNA-451a

[170]

PCA cell

 

miR-21

[151]

DNA tetrahedron probe

Serum

 

miR-21

Leverage localized reaction and cascade amplification

High specificity and sensitivity

High-cost

[171]

Plasma

1 mL

miR-1246; miR-221; miR-375; miR-21

[172]

SPR Detection

Pancreatic cancer cells and plasma

50 μL

miR-10b

The change of dielectric constant caused by molecule adsorption on the heavy metal film

High specificity and sensitivity; label-free

Nonspecific adsorption

[173]

Plasma

 

miRNA

[123]

Mouse serum

 

miR-10b

[174]

Single Vesicle Analysis

Serum

 

hsa-miRNA-21

Single-vesicle imaging

Direct visualization; acknowledgement of heterogeneity at the single-vesicle level

Nonspecific adsorption

[119]

Thermophoretic Detection

Serum

0.5 μL

miRNA

Nanoflare induced amplified fluorescence signal

Without the need for EV pre-isolation; high sensitivity; rapid detection; low cost

 

[175]

CRISPR/Cas-assisted detection

Plasma

500 μL

miRNA-21; miRNA-221; miRNA-222

CRISPR/Cas9

High sensitivity and specificity

 

[176]

  1. PGR Progesterone receptor, ESR1 Estrogen receptor 1, ERBB2 erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2, PCAT6 Prostate cancer associated transcript 6