Advances in design and preparation of nanozymes and their applications for constructing higher sensitive lateral flow assays

Development of low-cost, portable and disposable sensors for rapid, on-site and reliable analysis of various analytes is of high urgency and importance for ensuring people’s livelihood and public safety. With the emergence and popularity of digital color imaging technology, lateral flow assays (LFAs) have gradually become one of the most important sensors for point-of-care application. Compared with colloidal gold nanoparticles, nanozymes not only provide color strength via target-induced specific enrichment of nanozymes at test line, but also deepen color signal via nanozymes-assisted catalytic oxidation of colorless substrates into colored products, hence supplying a great potential for constructing higher-performance LFAs. Driven by this, considerable efforts have been devoted to nanozymes-based LFAs. In this review, we summarize the recent progress on the design and synthesis of nanozymes with different compositions showing different activity, and construction and application of nanozymes-based LFAs for pesticides, foodborne pathogens, biotoxins, food additives, antioxidants, disease biomarkers, and viruses. Further, the current challenges and future development directions are briefed for readers to develop higher-performance nanozymes-based LFAs. We expect this review will not only drive the significant advance of LFAs, but also promote their practical application in real samples, guaranteeing human health and public safety.