Rapid detection of pathogenic microorganisms is important to the prevention and control of diseases.Com-pared with traditional approaches, electrochemical DNA biosensors present great advantages in promising rapid, portable, sensitive and cost-saving detection of pathogens.In this review, the working principle of electrochemical DNA biosensors and the progress in detection of pathogens is introduced, the latest developments of DNA tetrahedron structure and new nano materials in electrochemical DNA biosensors are reviewed, and the challenges to and prospects of development in this field are also discussed.

Objective To develop a portbable incubator for on-site cultivation of microorganisms in foods and drinking water.Methods Cultivation temperature was set as required by the temperature for various microorganisms and PID was controlled via the single chip microcomputer and configuration screen .Then, the framework of the incubator was designed and assembled.Finally, the cultivation effect was tested .Results The incubator was compact and portable .The deviation of the temperature was in the range of 1℃.The hold time of self-contained power could exceed 8 h.In addition, the cultivation effect of our fabricated incubator was not significantly different from that of the commercial electro-heating standing-temperature cultivator used in laboratories .Conclusion The incubator is suitable for on-site detection of microorganisms in foods and drinking water , which is significant for spotting and removing the hidden dangers from microorganism contaminations in foods and drinking water in order to protect the health of soldiers .

Objective To establish a quick electrochemical biosensor for the detection of nucleic acid of Ebola virus . Methods The DNA tetrahedral nanostructure was self-assembled on gold surface by strong Au-S chemical bonds , leaving the target probe at the top .A biotinylated-ssDNA was introduced as the detection probe by specific binding of the captured target sequence , before avidin-horseradish peroxidase ( HRP) was used as a signal amplifier to transduce amperometric sig-nal through interactions with TMB substrate .Results The results indicated that the nucleotide sequence of Ebola virus could be recognized and detected by the sensor .The linear range for the detection of target DNA was from 1.0 ×10 -9 to 5.0 ×10 -6 mol/L,and the detection limit was 5.2 ×10 -10 mol/L.Conclusion The fabricated sensor is demonstrated to be sensitive and specific for the detection of Ebola virus nucleotide .

Rapid detection of infection pathogens is of great importance to the prevention and control of infectious diseases.Compared with traditional approaches,point-of-care testing (POCT) technologies promise great advantages in simple, rapid and portable detection of pathogens.In this review, the technologies, categories, developments and applications of POCT in detection of infectious pathogens are elaborated.Furthermore, the future developments of POCT detection of infectious pathogen are also discussed.This review focuses on loop-mediated isothermal amplification ( LAMP) technology, microfluidic chip and biosensor technology in the POCT detection of infectious pathogens while elaborating on the application of these new technologies associated with POCT detection.