Table 2.

Examples of biomolecules approved for clinical applications or already in clinical trials that are used in IONPs functionalization research studies

Type of biomolecule	Used name	Biological Target	Clinical trials status	Remarks and references of IONPs functionalization in research studies
Cell Penetrating Peptides (CPPs)	p28 (azurin fragment)	DNA binding domain of p53	p28 alone in phase I (NCT01975116 and NCT00914914)	No research studies with IONPs
Small Peptides	Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid (RGD)	Integrin receptor αvβ3	Phase I/II for cancer diagnostic by positron emission tomography (NCT01806675, NCT00565721, NCT01492192, NCT01961583)	Montet et al. 2006 Xie et al. 2008 Nazli et al. 2012
	Chlorotoxin (CTX)	Binding affinity for gliomas and neuroectodermal tumors	Phase I for cancer imaging and safety study	Sun et al 2008
			(NCT00379132, NCT00733798, NCT00040573)
	Nucant pseudopeptide (N6L)	Binding nucleolin and nucleophosmin	Phase I/IIa, Study to Assess Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics and Preliminary Efficacy on Advanced Solid Tumors (NCT01711398)	Latorre et al. 2014 (submitted) Destouches et al. 2011
Antibodies	Trastuzumab	Her2/neu receptor	Accepted by FDA and over the world (Herceptin as commercial formulation for breast cancer)	Hu et al. 2005
Aptamers	E10030	Anti-platelet-derived growth factor (anti PDGF-B)	Phase III for Age-Related Macular Degeneration (in complement with other anti-VEGF drug) NCT01940900	No research studies with IONPs
Folic Acid	Folate	Folate receptors	Several clinical studies of folic acid conjugated to anti-cancer drugs (NCT00485563, NCT00485563, NCT00291785, etc.)	Fan et al. 2011