Research review paperAdvances in nanomaterials and their applications in point of care (POC) devices for the diagnosis of infectious diseases

•Point-of-care (POC) devices are meant to improve the diagnosis of diseases.•POCs provide shorter assaying times, cost effectiveness, and simple procedures.•Nanotechnology-based POCs can be used for the detection of infectious pathogens.

Nanotechnology has gained much attention over the last decades, as it offers unique opportunities for the advancement of the next generation of sensing tools. Point-of-care (POC) devices for the selective detection of biomolecules using engineered nanoparticles have become a main research thrust in the diagnostic field. This review presents an overview on how the POC-associated nanotechnology, currently applied for the identification of nucleic acids, proteins and antibodies, might be further exploited for the detection of infectious pathogens: although still premature, future integrations of nanoparticles with biological markers that target specific microorganisms will enable timely therapeutic intervention against life-threatening infectious diseases.