Gene therapy has been used to improve a patient's health condition by genetically modifying the target cells. The vector, which acts as a carrier for the therapeutic gene, could be viral or not viral. A novel non-viral vector to be employed for gene therapy could be the exosomes. Exosomes are nanovesicles, sized between 30-120 nm, that are released by a plethora of cells. Their role in the organism is facilitating intercellular communication between cells and transfer of their content, which is their most important function as non-viral vectors.

The main objective on this is the comparison of the classical method for the extraction and purification of exosomes, which is by ultracentrifugation and another with plenty of advantages (time, cost etc) as SEC, in terms of efficiency.

Herein, we have compared the isolation of exosomes from glioblastoma cells when using a commercial qEV SEC column (SEC method) versus an optimized ultracentrifugation (UC) method. UC method required of four centrifugations with at least 2.30h of procedure and the use of an ultracentrifuge. On the other hand, SEC involved numerous short centrifugations for 5 minutes with the use of a benchtop centrifuge.

As a conclusion, higher concentration of exosomes in the aliquots from the chromatography columns was obtained when compared to the exosomes from several ultracentrifugations rounds. This result would ease the use of exosomes as vectors for future gene therapies facilitating the extraction of them in almost any laboratory.