Nanomaterials for bacterial enrichment and detection in healthcare

Abstract

Bacterial infections in the blood (sepsis) have been recognized as a leading cause of mortality in the clinical field due to limitations in the detection of bacteria at low concentration and their resistance to antibiotics by excessive misuse. Some of the common symptoms are fever, chills, rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, confusion, and changes in mental status with occasionally pale, clammy, and mottled skin. Early diagnosis and identification are the keys to a successful treatment for sepsis patients. Researchers have developed nanoparticles to enrich bacterial populations followed by detection and applied them to conventional methods such as phenotypic and molecular diagnostics to enhance different detectors’ responses toward pathogens. This short review systematically overviews steps that are followed in clinical labs for bacterial detection, identification, and their drawbacks. In this context, we discuss the role that nanoparticles can play in overcoming the limits of traditional microbiology methods in terms of turnaround times (TATs) and accuracy. We believe that this short review will provide up-to-date information about the applications of nanoparticles in the enrichment, separation, and identification of bacterial infection in the clinical field and, therefore, a way of rapid treatment.