Nanoparticle-enabled blood tests for early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is often detected too late to allow adequate treatments with the resultthat patients are condemned to sufferings and early death. Most efforts have been therefore aimed at identifyingsensitive PDAC biomarkers. Although biomarkers have numerous advantages, sample size, intra-individualvariability, existence of several biases and confounding variables and cost of investigation make their clinicalapplication challenging. In recent years, nanotechnology is providing new options for early cancer detection.Among recent discoveries, the concept is emerging that the protein corona, i.e. the layer of plasma proteins thatsurrounds nanomaterials in bodily fluids, is personalized. In particular, the protein corona of cancer patients issignificantly different from that of healthy individuals. Herein, we review this concept with a particular focus onclinical relevance. We also discuss the recently developed nanoparticle-enabled blood (NEB) tests that demonstratedto be promising in discriminating PDAC patients from healthy volunteers by global change of the nanoparticle-protein corona. We conclude with a critical discussion of research perspectives aimed at furtherimproving the prediction ability of the test.