Ultrasensitive Profiling of Extracellular Vesicles by a Microbead- and Aptamer-Enhanced Thermophoretic Assay for Monitoring Therapeutic Responses
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 micro<u>be</u>ad- and <u>a</u>ptamer-enhanced <u>t</u>hermophoretic (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<sup>-1</sup>. 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.
Authors
- Jiashu Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4255-6202)
- Yike Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0342-5632)
- Jinqi Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2815-1727)
- Chao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1345-7934)
- Shaohua Zhang
- Yan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7272-5455)
- Ziwei Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7377-3934)
- Yanjuan Huang
- Min Ying
Institutions
- Anhui Medical University (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Center for NanoScience (DE)
- Chinese PLA General Hospital (CN)
- Peking University Cancer Hospital (CN)
- National Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology (CN)
- National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (CN)
- Ministry of Education (ET)
- Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (CN)
- Molecular Oncology (United States) (US)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Analytical Chemistry
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5c06434
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Extracellular vesicles in disease
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.81