NANODIAGNOSTICS: A NEW FRONTIER FOR VETERINARY AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

Infectious diseases are one of the greatest threats to animal and human population living in the developing world. These diseases have capacity to instigate in a small area and then open out very fast to the rest of the world and causing a heavy pandemic situation, for example; avian influenza pandemic. Such diseases infect large masses of population and may lead to loss of lives and also incur huge economic losses. Therefore, the best way to control these diseases is by diagnosing it at a very primary level and taking necessary precautionary measures so as to avoid the spread. Since last few years, the diagnostic approach has changed from tedious molecular biological techniques, to easy and rapid diagnostic techniques. Nanotechnology has extended the molecular diagnostics limit to nanoscale. These developed techniques do not require sophisticated laboratories and expert personnel, and hence are a cheap diagnostic approach. These assays can also be performed at the field level where the patient is present and get the results there itself. Hence, they are also called as pen side test or lab on chip diagnostic assays. The biological tests using nanotechnology become quicker, more flexible and more sensitive. These techniques have greatly influenced the diagnostic approach in the veterinary as well as medical field. Especially in the developing countries such as India, where the laboratory services are not available at the village level, these techniques have facilitated the disease diagnosis the most. Nanotechnology also applies the tools and processes for nanofabrication which is used to build devices for studying biosystems. Molecular diagnostics incorporated with nanobiotechnology has improved clinical diagnosis and opened a new area for development of personalized medicine. Nanotechnology has also played a crucial role in designing of diagnostic assays for medical and veterinary use. The nano materials have many versatile optical properties, piezo-electric properties, thermal properties, electro-chemical properties, enzyme mimicking properties etc. By exploiting these properties, the workers have designed different approaches for diagnosis. In this review, different nano-diagnostic approaches for detection of pathogen have been stated.