Nanotechnology and pancreatic cancer management: State of the art and further perspectives

Table 1 Nanotechnology and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma early diagnosis

Year	Ref.	NP type	Main findings
2012	Walkey et al[8]	Gold, Silica, Polystyrene	Characteristics of NPs (material, size, electric charge, hydrophobicity) influence the composition of the PC
2012	Monopoli et al[10]	Silica, Carbon, Iron oxide, Polystyrene	Different experimental sources (e.g., plasma, urine), affect the composition of the PC
2013	Tenzer et al[9]	Silica, Polystyrene	Environmental factors (e.g., incubation time) influence the composition of PC
2014	Caracciolo et al[14]	Liposomes	After interaction of NPs with plasma of PDACs and non-oncological subjects, differences in the electric charge (zeta potential) and size of the PCs allow to distinguish between the two groups
2015	Zheng et al[12]	Gold	Gold-NPs successfully used for early detection of prostate cancer
2017	Corbo et al[11]	Silica, Polystyrene, Gold, Liposomes	Different patients affected by different pathological conditions have “personalized” PC
2018	Caputo et al[16]	Liposomes	Analysis of PCs formed around DOPG liposomes allowed to distinguish patients affected by T1-T2 PDACs from T3s and metastatic ones
2019	Künzel et al[13]	Silica	Successful application of silica NPs in early diagnosis of the head and neck solid squamous carcinoma
2019	Papi et al[15]	GO	Analysis of BC formed around GO nanoflakes distinguished PDAC from healthy subjects (sensitivity 92%)

NP: Nanoparticle; PC: Protein corona; PDAC: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; DOPG: 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1'-rac-glycerol); BC: Biomolecular corona; GO: Graphene oxide; NET: NP-enabled tool.

Table 2 Nanotechnology and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma therapy

Year	Ref.	NP type	Main Findings
2008	Patra et al[19]	Gold	Gold NPs used as nanocarrier improve the effect of cetuximab and gemcitabine in reducing the growth and the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells in murine model.
2013	Mirshafiee et al[21]	Silica	The exposure to human plasma significantly reduces the targeting ability of NPs.
2015	Meng et al[24]	MSN	Coated bilayer MSNs improve the synergic delivery of gemcitabine and paclitaxel in PANC-1 injected in murine models.
2015	FDA[20]	Liposomal irinotecan (Onivyde®)	Approval of Onivyde® for clinical use in metastatic PDAC, who already have received gemcitabine.
2016	Liu et al[22]	MSN	In KPC pancreatic cancer cells injected into murine models, biocompatibility and therapeutic efficacy of MSNs-irinotecan formulation are superior to liposomal-irinotecan formulation.
2017	Lu et al[25]	MSN	MSNs improve oxaliplatin and indoximod bioavailability in KPC pancreatic cancer cells injected into murine models.
2017	Shi et al[23]	NP albumin	FDA approved the clinical use of NP albumin-bound paclitaxel (Abraxane) for pancreatic cancer.
2020	Sadoughi et al[27]	Chitosan	The use of chitosan as carrier of gemcitabine and 5-FU improves therapeutic effect decreasing toxicity in pancreatic cancer cells.

NP: Nanoparticle; MSN: Mesoporous silica nanoparticle; KPC: KrasLSL-G12D/+/Trp53LSL-R172H/+/Pdx-1-Cre; PANC-1: Pancreatic cancer cell; PDAC: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; 5-FU: 5-Fluorouracil.