Functional Single-Chain Polymer Nanoparticles: Targeting and Imaging Pancreatic Tumors in Vivo.

The development of tools for the early diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an urgent need in order to increase treatment success rate and reduce patient mortality. Here, we present a modular nanosystem platform integrating soft nanoparticles with a targeting peptide and an active imaging agent for diagnostics. Biocompatible single-chain polymer nanoparticles (SCPNs) based on poly(methacrylic acid) were prepared and functionalized with the somatostatin analogue PTR86 as the targeting moiety, since somatostatin receptors are overexpressed in pancreatic cancer.