Recent advances in nanotechnology for simultaneous detection of multiple pathogenic bacteria

Owing to the environmental complexity in terms of the coexistence of multiple pathogenic microorganisms, development of the simple, rapid, and accurate assay for simultaneous detection of multiple pathogenic microorganisms still faces major challenges, but it is an unavoidable topic. Recently, with the thriving development of nanotechnologies, nanoparticle-based assays are emerging as one of the most promising methods to enable the accurate identifying and quantifying of multiple pathogenic microorganisms with the merits of cost-efficiency, time-saving, high sensitivity and selectivity. Regarding to the efforts that have been made in this field, in this review, we have systematically summarized the recent progress in the development of functionalized-nanoparticles for the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogenic bacteria. In detail, five different types of nanomaterials, including magnetic nanoparticles, gold nanomaterials, inorganic quantum dots (QDs), upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), and carbon nanomaterials in the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogenic bacteria are reviewed, and the confronting challenges as well as a brief outlook are also discussed.