Engineering a tunable micropattern‐array assay to sort single extracellular vesicles and particles to detect RNA and protein in situ
Jingjing Zhang, Xilal Y. Rima, Xinyu Wang, Luong T. H. Nguyen, Kristin Huntoon, Yifan Ma, Paola Loreto Palacio, Kim Truc Nguyen, Karunya Albert, Minh‐Dao Duong‐Thi, Nicole Walters, Kwang Joo Kwak, Min Jin Yoon, Hong Li, Jacob Doon‐Ralls, Colin L. Hisey, Daeyong Lee, Yifan Wang, JongHoon Ha, Kelsey Scherler, Shannon Fallen, Inyoul Lee, Andre F. Palmer, Wen Jiang, Setty M. Magaña, Kai Wang, Betty Y.S. Kim, L. James Lee, Eduardo Reátegui
Abstract
Abstract The molecular heterogeneity of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the co‐isolation of physically similar particles, such as lipoproteins (LPs), confounds and limits the sensitivity of EV bulk biomarker characterization. Herein, we present a single‐EV and particle (siEVP) protein and RNA assay ( siEVP PRA) to simultaneously detect mRNAs, miRNAs, and proteins in subpopulations of EVs and LPs. The siEVP PRA immobilizes and sorts particles via positive immunoselection onto micropatterns and focuses biomolecular signals in situ. By detecting EVPs at a single‐particle resolution, the siEVP PRA outperformed the sensitivities of bulk‐analysis benchmark assays for RNA and protein. To assess the specificity of RNA detection in complex biofluids, EVs from various glioma cell lines were processed with small RNA sequencing, whereby two mRNAs and two miRNAs associated with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) were chosen for cross‐validation. Despite the presence of single‐EV‐LP co‐isolates in serum, the siEVP PRA detected GBM‐associated vesicular RNA profiles in GBM patient siEVPs. The siEVP PRA effectively examines intravesicular, intervesicular, and interparticle heterogeneity with diagnostic promise.