Owing to their diverse properties, fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) have attracted more attention and present enormous potential in development of sensors, bioimaging, drug delivery, microfluidics, photodynamic therapy, light emitting diode, and so forth. Herein, a multifunctional sensing platform based on bright yellow fluorescent CDs (Y-CDs) was designed for the label-free detection of fluoroquinolones (FQs) and histidine (His). The Y-CDs with superior optical and biological merits including high chemical stability, good biocompatibility, and low cytotoxicity were simply synthesized via one-step hydrothermal treatment of o-phenylenediamine (o-PD) and 4-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The Y-CDs can be utilized to directly monitor the amount of FQs based on fluorescence static quenching owing to the specific interaction between FQs and Y-CDs. Then, the fluorescence of this system can be effectively recovered upon addition of His. The multifunctional sensing platform exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity toward three kinds of FQs and His with low detection limits of 17–67 and 35 nM, respectively. Benefiting from these outstanding characters, the Y-CDs were successfully employed for trace detection of FQs in real samples such as antibiotic tablets and milk products. Furthermore, the probe was also extended to cellular imaging. All of the above prove that this multifunctional sensing platform presents great prospect in multiple applications such as biosensing, biomedicine, disease diagnosis, and environmental monitoring.

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Electrochemical immunosensors have attracted immense attention due to the ease of mass electrode production and the high compatibility of the miniature electric reader, which is beneficial for developing point-of-care diagnostic devices. Electrochemical immunosensors can be divided into label-free and label-based sensing strategies equipped with potentiometric, amperometric, or impedimetric detectors. Emerging nanomaterials are frequently used on electrochemical immunosensors as a highly rough and conductive interface of the electrodes or on nanocarriers of immobilizing capture antibodies, electroactive mediators, or catalyzers. Adopting nanomaterials can increase immunosensor characteristics with lower detection limits and better sensitivity. Recent research has shown innovative immobilization procedures of nano-materials which meet the requirements of different electrochemical immunosensors. This review discusses the past five years of advances in nanomaterials (metal nanoparticles, metal nanostructures, carbon nanotubes, and graphene) integrated into the electrochemical immunosensor. Furthermore, the new tendency and endeavors of nanomaterial-based electrochemical immunosensors are discussed.

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While there are many clinical drugs for prophylaxis and treatment, the search for those with low or no risk of side effects for the control of infectious and non-infectious diseases is a dilemma that cannot be solved by today’s traditional drug development strategies. The need for new drug development strategies is becoming increasingly important, and the development of new drugs from traditional medicines is the most promising strategy. Many valuable clinical drugs have been developed based on traditional medicine, including drugs with single active ingredients similar to modern drugs and those developed from improved formulations of traditional drugs. However, the problems of traditional isolation and purification and drug screening methods should be addressed for successful drug development from traditional medicine. Advances in microfluidics have not only contributed significantly to classical drug development but have also solved many of the thorny problems of new strategies for developing new drugs from traditional drugs. In this review, we provide an overview of advanced microfluidics and its applications in drug development (drug compound synthesis, drug screening, drug delivery, and drug carrier fabrication) with a focus on its applications in conventional medicine, including the separation and purification of target components in complex samples and screening of active ingredients of conventional drugs. We hope that our review gives better insight into the potential of traditional medicine and the critical role of microfluidics in the drug development process. In addition, the emergence of new ideas and applications will bring about further advances in the field of drug development.