title: Nanotechnology and the diagnosis of dermatological infectious disease.
abstract: Despite advances in diagnostics and therapeutics, infectious diseases continue to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality, surpassing cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Accurate identification of causative pathogens is critical to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and to deliver appropriate and timely therapy. Various limitations ranging from cost to lengthy yield times of current diagnostic modalities highlight the need for new approaches. Nanotechnology represents an innovative direction offering many advantages for pathogen detection and identification. Through surface modifications, nanoparticles can be tailored to bind microbial surface markers, nucleic acids, and toxins. Combining these nanoparticles with both standard and developing detection technologies has led to the development of faster, more sensitive, and more economical diagnostic assays. This review will focus on the diagnostic advances that utilize fluorescent, metallic, and magnetic nanomaterials, highlighting their potential applications in the diagnosis of infectious dermatological conditions.
authors: Division of Dermatology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, USA.
authors: Karin
authors: K
authors: Blecher Paz
authors: Adam
authors: A
authors: Friedman
mesh_terms: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D058185:Magnetite Nanoparticles; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D053758:Nanoparticles; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D012874:Skin Diseases, Infectious / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D058185:Magnetite Nanoparticles