Recent advances in low‐background luminescent nanomaterials‐enhanced lateral flow assays for clinical diagnosis

Abstract Lateral flow assays (LFAs) are widely applicable in clinical point‐of‐care testing (POCT) due to their unique advantages such as simplicity, rapidity, and cost‐effectiveness. However, their sensitivity is often constrained by the background autofluorescence of the biological sample, the self‐matrix, or the readout technique, thereby leading to overlooking trace amounts of biomarkers present in early disease. In recent years, various nanomaterials‐based methods have been developed to address this issue, including the time‐gated technique, wavelength‐differentiated strategy and external modulated strategy for separation of background autofluorescence to minimize interference from biological samples. This review provides a comprehensive overview of various low‐background luminescent nanoparticles (LBLNPs)‐enhanced LFA systems, focusing on analyzing the underlying mechanism of these nanomaterials in improving the sensitivity and accuracy of the LFAs platform in clinical diagnosis. Representative examples are selected to demonstrate the clinical potential of these nanomaterials in detecting disease‐associated biomarkers in various samples including blood, urine, saliva et al. Finally, unresolved challenges and future development prospects are briefly discussed.