Peptide-Engineered Biomimetic Nanoplatform with Cell-Membrane Camouflage Streamlines High-Performance Isolation and Quantitation of Extracellular Vesicles

Abstract

Reliable isolation and quantitation of extracellular vesicles (EVs), which function as natural bioactive nanocarriers in biological processes, are essential to uncovering their underlying mechanisms and applications. To meet these requirements, we present here a peptide-engineered biomimetic nanoplatform featuring cell-membrane camouflage. This biomimetic nanoplatform utilizes specific peptide ligands to facilitate the “capture–release” isolation of EVs while enhancing performance by harnessing the antifouling and fluidity advantages afforded by the camouflage of red blood cell membranes. Furthermore, this nanoplatform streamlines the electrochemical quantitation of EVs via a nondestructive labeling and delabeling process, showing accuracy comparable to that of widely used nanoparticle tracking analysis. Validating with EVs from breast cancer cells and human embryonic stem cells, this nanoplatform is also proved to effectively maintain the biological activities of the isolated EVs, thereby enabling precise regulation of cell migration and antiapoptotic response. As such, this biomimetic nanoplatform stands as a highly effective solution for isolating and quantitatively assessing EVs from diverse sources, thus propelling the potential applications of EVs in biomedical and clinical research.