ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for the routine quality control of exosome isolations

Abstract Exosomes are nanosized vesicles containing specific cargos of DNA, RNA, proteins, metabolites, and intracellular and membrane lipids. Exosome isolation needs to be optimized carefully depending on the type of biofluid and tissue and the retrieved exosomes need to be characterized. The main objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of a multimodal analysis of Attenuated Total Reflectance – Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and UPLC–QqTOF-MSMS for the development of a routine quality control tool of isolated exosomes and the rapid characterization of their lipid profiles and total protein content. Using human milk as model example, exosomes were isolat…