Nanotechnology‐Based Rapid Diagnostic Tests

Abstract

Recently, various nanomaterials are used in order to develop nanotechnology‐based rapid diagnostic tests, such as metallic nanoparticles, quantum dots (QDs), silica nanospheres, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), silicon nanowires (SiNWs), nanopores, graphene, nanostructured surfaces, and metal films. This novel nanodiagnostic approach will further develop point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostics and monitoring technologies. Nanobiosensors and microarrays of biosensors can create biochip systems and microfluidic platforms that are the most used nanofabrications for rapid diagnostic tests. These nanoplatforms are constructed for the rapid detection of various diseases or pathogen‐specific biomolecules/markers, such as DNA, proteins, whole cells (e.g., circulating tumor cells), and others. The fabrication of small‐scale portable devices with the incorporation of nanostructures will offer many advantages in the early detection of various diseases and health‐threatening infections by pathogens and in the treatment selection and treatment monitoring. The use of nanostructures in in vitro diagnostics gives the opportunity to augment the sensitivity and specificity required in clinical practice, lowers the cost and test time of the assays, and enables portable microfluidic platforms suitable for resource‐constrained settings. In this chapter, all the state‐of‐the‐art advantages in this field are discussed, starting with the nanostructures used for the fabrication of nanobiosensors, nanobiosensors arrays, and nanofluidic platforms and the nanodiagnostic use of rapid tests in the detection of pathogens, in cancer management, and glucose monitoring for the management of diabetes disease.