RF Electrical Detection and Characterization of Exosomes Released from Epstein-Barr Virus Infected and Uninfected Cells

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles released by most cell types. These nano-vesicles have been shown to carry specific molecular cargo that can influence various pathophysiological processes, including viral infections, cancer metastasis and immune responses. Thus, the detection and characterization of exosomes is becoming increasingly important. Exosomes are difficult to detect due to their small size and lack of reliable characterization techniques. Furthermore, because of their similar size and morphology, it is difficult to distinguish exosomes released from the viral-infected or cancerous cells from those released by the healthy cells. This work was undertaken to detect exosomes in culture medium from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infected and uninfected cells using electrical parameters. The principle of the technique is that, when exosomes originating from infected, uninfected cells and cancer cells are polarized electrically, they will give a unique electrical capacitance signature, which could be used to identify them. When exosomes from EBV infected and uninfected cells were subjected to electrical measurements, the findings clearly indicated that different exosomes could indeed be distinguished based on their specific electrical capacitance signature. This work is an initial step towards the development of a rapid, reproducible and label-free electrical based method for the detection of exosomes released from different cell types.