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Table 3 Comparison of existing technologies for endosomes and lysosome isolation

From: Designer nanoparticle: nanobiotechnology tool for cell biology

Isolation methodologies

Advantages

Disadvantages

Density gradient centrifugation;

Conventional method that can be used to isolate endosomes and lysosomes along other subcellular compartments

Effective method to isolate lysosomes from tissue or in vivo cell fractions

Simple procedure that can be performed using an ultracentrifuge

Low yield

Difficulties in separating endosomes from lysosome vesicles

Difficulties in separating different endosomal and its associated vesicles

Antibody based pull-down assay

Can be used to pull down proteins after post-fractionation

Can also be used to target selective endocytic uptakes

Can be used in combination with biotin-streptavidin assay

Limited applicability for certain endocytosis uptake

Limited yield and low purity

Cannot isolate vesicles under native conditions

SPMNPs based isolation;

A novel strategy that is generic for any kind of cell systems with reasonable purity and yield

Method does not involve the use of detergent or antibody that affects native conditions

Method can also use targeted endosomal uptake pathway by using ligand tagged nanoparticle

Can be used to isolate protein under native conditions and all endosomal uptake

Technology has not be established for isolation of vesicles form tissue cells and in vivo experiments

Technology has not been established to isolate vesicles from cell suspension. Possibility exists to use this technology for cells in suspension culture