Recent advances on strategies and technologies for isolation of bovine milk-derived exosomes: An overview

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles that play an important role in intercellular communication by facilitating the transfer of cell-specific constituents of the source cell to the recipient cell. They are secreted by various cell types and are available in all body fluids. Milk has been a part of the human diet since ages and is known to contain diverse bioactive components, including exosomes. Milk-derived exosomes (MDE) contain specific cargo with proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and other bioactive molecules that help in cell-to-cell communication and can alter the biological and physical processes of the recipient cells. These MDE can act as excellent nanocarriers for the delivery of drugs due to their stability and low immunogenicity. In this comprehensive review, the conventional isolation strategies based on ultracentrifugation, immunocapture, polymer-based precipitation, and chromatography and also the emerging technologies like microfluidic chips are discussed in detail. These provide functionally intact exosomes with high recovery rate. The available methods have one or the other limitations which pose challenges for the downstream analysis. Hence, integration of different methods is the most effective way to isolate exosomes with high recovery rate, purity and intact biological functions that open new avenues for exploring the therapeutic potential of MDE improving health and developing innovative medical interventions.