Phage Display as a Tool for Theranostic and Nanomedicine Application

Theranostic nanomedicine allows co-development of different nanotechnology-based diagnostic and therapy strategies in order to combine detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease into a single unit. Usually, constructs of multifunctional systems for theranostics include a selective probe both as diagnostic tool and as selective agent for targeted therapy. In the present work, several proofs of concept of diagnostic and teranostic systems, based on the phage display technology, are presented. In particular, the phage display has been used for the selection of peptides specific to bacterial and tumor cellular targets. First, phage display technology has been employed to select phage clones, expressing peptides able to bind molecular targets of pathogenic bacteria and cancer cells. Then, the whole phage structure as "biomaterial" has been evaluated with fluorchromes, beads, noble metal nanoparticles and PHA microspheres for the development of multifunctional systems for theranostics. The proofs of concept have been developed using both conventional detection methodologies (agglutination, fluorescence microscopy, PCR, and ELISA) and new optical methods, such as Raman spectrometry and SERSRaman, which have been carefully considered in the development of some of the described methodologies. The technical combinations and the obtained results here presented demonstrated the importance of intersections among different fields of theoretical and applied science and the need of a common language among different professionals and research teams.