Abstract

Abstract Nucleic acid detection plays a crucial role in various applications, including disease diagnostics, research development, food safety, and environmental health monitoring. A rapid, point‐of‐care (POC) nucleic acid test can greatly benefit healthcare system by providing timely diagnosis for effective treatment and patient management, as well as supporting diseases surveillance for emerging pandemic diseases. Recent advancements in nucleic acids technology have led to rapid assays for single‐stranded nucleic acids that can be integrated into simple and miniaturized platforms for ease of use. In this review, the study focuses on the developments in isothermal amplification, nucleic acid hybridization circuits, various enzyme‐based signal reporting mechanisms, and detection platforms that show promise for POC testing. The study also evaluates critical technical breakthroughs to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these methods in various applications.