Novel Theranostic Agents for Next-generation Personalized Medicine: Small Molecules, Nanoparticles, and Engineered Mammalian Cells

Modern medicine is currently undergoing a paradigm shift from conventional disease treatments based on the diagnosis of a generalized disease state to a more personalized, customized treatment model based on molecular-level diagnosis. This uses novel biosensors that can precisely extract disease-related information from complex biological systems. Moreover, with the recent progress in chemical biology, materials science, and synthetic biology, it has become possible to simultaneously conduct diagnosis and targeted therapy (theranostics/theragnosis) by directly connecting the readout of a biosensor to a therapeutic output. These advances pave the way for more advanced and better personalized treatment for intractable diseases with fewer side effects. In this review, we describe recent advances in the development of cutting-edge theranostic agents that contain both diagnostic and therapeutic functions in a single integrated system. By comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each modality, we discuss the future challenges and prospects of developing ideal theranostic agents for the next generation of personalized medicine.