Is Small Really Beautiful? Nanosensors and Low Abundance Biomarkers for Personalized Medicine

Biomarkers are defined as a characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biological or pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention. Over the past few decades, a growing interest in the identification of biomarkers has emerged in order to detect different pathologies in the early stages. Thus, it would be possible to provide a customized treatment to the patient, improving their outcome. Owing this purpose, proteomics has allowed the development of new methodologies and technologies which are able of detecting low-abundance proteins. This is due, in part, to the development of novel promising materials, such as quantum dots or silicon nanowires. Such emerging approaches come with the advantage of their high sensitivity, low-volume requirements or the potential high-throughput applications, among others. However, since huge information has been generated through nanoproteomic techniques, only few applications have arrived to the clinics. Referring to personalized medicine and targeted therapies, it has to be mentioned that the development of more specific drugs can be improved by the use of biomarkers, helping with decisions about dose, schedule and patient population. In this review, we summarize and highlight the utility of biomarkers identified through nanoproteomics for personalized medicine as well as the applications in the clinic and the future perspectives