Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their contents have been revealed to play crucial roles in the intrinsic intercellular communications and have received extensive attention as next-generation biomarkers for diagnosis of diseases such as cancers. However, due to the structural nature of the EVs, the precise isolation and characterization are extremely challenging. To this end, tremendous efforts have been made to develop bionano sensors for the precise and sensitive characterization of EVs from a complex biologic fluid. In this review, we will provide a detailed discussion of recently developed bionano sensors in which EVs analysis applications were achieved, typically in optical and electrochemical methods. We believe that the topics discussed in this review will be useful to provide a concise guideline in the development of bionano sensors for EVs monitoring in the future. The development of a novel strategy to monitor various bio/chemical materials from EVs will provide promising information to understand cellular activities in a more precise manner and accelerates research on both cancer and cell-based therapy.
Keywords: biosensors; electrochemical sensor; extracellular vesicle; nanoparticle; nanotechnology; optical sensor.