Development of fluorescent probes targeting the cell wall of pathogenic bacteria

Contamination of pathogenic bacteria seriously threatens human health and safety, and the types and pathogenicity of bacteria are closely related to cell walls. Fluorescent probes can perform specific and sensitive detection of bacterial cells, and make an important contribution to the diagnosis of bacterial diseases and the development of antibiotics. In this review, we summarized the latest developments in integrating identification elements targeting bacterial cell walls with different chromogenic elements (small molecule fluorophores, conjugated polymers, and fluorescent nanomaterials) to detect and sense pathogenic bacteria. We hope this review paper can provide ideas for the design of new pathogen detection probes with better performance.