Peptoids: Smart and Emerging Candidates for the Diagnosis of Cancer, Neurological and Autoimmune Disorders

Early detection of fatal and disabling diseases such as cancer, neurological and autoimmune dysfunctions is still desirable yet challenging to improve quality of life and longevity. Peptoids (N-substituted glycine oligomers) are a relatively new class of peptidomimetics, being highly versatile and capable of mimicking the architectures and the activities of the peptides but with a marked resistance to proteases and a propensity to cross the cellular membranes over the peptides themselves. For these properties, they have gained an ever greater interest in applications in bioengineering and biomedical fields. In particular, the present manuscript is to our knowledge the only review focused on peptoids for diagnostic applications and covers the last decade’s literature regarding peptoids as tools for early diagnosis of pathologies with a great impact on human health and social behavior. The review indeed provides insights into the peptoid employment in targeted cancer imaging and blood-based screening of neurological and autoimmune diseases, and it aims to attract the scientific community’s attention to continuing and sustaining the investigation of these peptidomimetics in the diagnosis field considering their promising peculiarities.