Recent advancements in microfluidic systems for point-of-care pathogen detection by nucleic acid amplification testing

Infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance pose escalating threats to global public health, demanding rapid and accurate pathogen detection to guide timely clinical decision-making. Conventional diagnostic methods, including microbial culture, immunoassays, and laboratory-based molecular testing, require specialized equipment, trained personnel, and lengthy workflows that delay results and limit accessibility, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Microfluidic nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) platforms offer a promising route toward miniaturized, automated sample-to-answer molecular diagnostics with reduced reagent consumption and accelerated turnaround times. This review analyzes microfluidic NAAT platforms through a unified comparative framework encompassing on-chip lysis, nucleic acid purification, amplification, and detection.