Roles of nanomaterials in thrombin detection

Thrombin is a key active enzyme in many physiological and pathological processes, involving in thrombosis, embryonic development and angiogenesis, brain lesions, inflammation, tumor growth and metastasis. Therefore, the development of highly selective and sensitive thrombin detection strategies is significant. Nanomaterial-based detection biosensors are widely used to realize rapid, accurate and effective identification or quantitative analysis of thrombin attributed to the unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials. In this paper, nanomaterials classified as signal probes, signal quenchers, carriers and catalytic mediators were summarized according to their roles in thrombin detection process. Ultimately, present challenges and future perspectives of the application of nanomaterials in the thrombin detection were thoroughly discussed. There is no doubt that this review would provide inspired ideas, promising strategies and potential platforms for constructing nanomaterial-based biosensors for ultrasensitive and highly specific thrombin detection.