Mass Spectrometry-based Exosome Characterization

Creative Biolabs has extensive experience to offer a variety of exosome services including isolation, purification, and characterization. In order to better understand the characteristics of exosomes and facilitate the later therapeutic and diagnostic application, we provide the detail proteomics of exosomes based on the highly sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) technology.

Mass Spectrometry (MS)

MS is an analytical technique that ionizes chemical species and sorts the ions based on their mass-to-charge ratio. The instrument used in MS is called mass spectrometer which has three essential components: ion source, mass analyzer, and detector. In a typical MS procedure, a sample, which may be solid, liquid, or gas, is ionized, for example by bombarding it with electrons. This may cause some of the sample's molecules to break into charged fragments. These ions are then separated according to their mass-to-charge ratio, typically by accelerating them and subjecting them to an electric or magnetic field: ions of the same mass-to-charge ratio will undergo the same amount of deflection. The ions are detected by a mechanism capable of detecting charged particles, such as an electron multiplier. Results are displayed as spectra of the relative abundance of detected ions as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. The atoms or molecules in the sample can be identified by correlating known masses (e.g. an entire molecule) to the identified masses or through a characteristic fragmentation pattern.

Mass spectrometry workflow. (Creative Biolabs Original) Fig.1 A brief workflow of mass spectrometry.

Applications of MS

MS is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex mixtures. It is a useful tool for both qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis. It can identify unknown compounds, determining the isotopic composition of elements in a molecule and the structure of a compound by observing its fragmentation. It can also quantify the amount of a compound in a sample or study the fundamentals of gas phase ion chemistry (the chemistry of ions and neutrals in a vacuum). Now, MS is very commonly used in analytical laboratories that study physical, chemical, or biological properties of a great variety of compounds. Noteworthy, MS is also used to assess protein, lipid and metabolite composition of extracellular vesicles.

MS-based Exosome Characterization in Creative Biolabs

Based on the high sensitivity of MS technology, we can provide accurate information of proteomic components of exosome, including qualitative, quantitative and targeted quantitative analysis of exosomal proteins. We believe that our services of MS-based exosome characterization will help you understand the role and function of exosomes, as well as facilitate their diagnostic application as potential sources of disease-related biomarkers.