Integration of nanomaterials with nucleic acid amplification approaches for biosensing

The novel nanomaterials (e.g., gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs), quantum dots (QDs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene oxides (GOs), and metal organic frameworks (MOFs)) with unique characteristics have been widely applied for the construction of in vitro and in vivo nanosensors. However, the detection of extremely low abundant biomarkers remains a great challenge. To solve this issue, different kinds of nucleic acid amplification approaches (e.g., hybridization chain reaction (HCR), Exo III-assisted target recycling (EATR), strand displacement amplification (SDA), rolling circle amplification (RCA), and ligase chain reaction (LCR)) have been introduced, endowing the nanosensors with improved sensitivity and good performance. In this review, we summarize the recent advance in the development of nanosensors based on the integration of nanomaterials with nucleic acid amplification approaches for sensitive detection of DNAs, RNAs, enzymes, proteins, and small biomolecules. Moreover, we give a new insight into their future directions.