The rapid developments in nanotechnology and plasmonics allow the manipulation of light at nanometer scales, such as light propagation and resonances. Differing from the symmetric Lorentzian‐like profiles in the conventional resonances, Fano resonances, which originate from the interference of different resonant modes, exhibit obviously asymmetric spectral profiles. Based on lineshape engineering, the Fano resonances with sharp asymmetric profiles exhibit a small linewidth and a high spectral contrast by exploiting different mechanisms and designing various metallic nanostructures. Both of the above properties in the sharp Fano resonances have significant applications in nanoscale plasmonic sensors and modulators. This review summarizes the underlying mechanism of the Fano resonances in various metallic nanostructures. Then, practical applications of the Fano resonances in nanoscale plasmonic sensing and modulation are reviewed. At last, the development and challenges of plasmonic sensing and modulation based on Fano resonances are discussed.

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BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is one of the most serious infectious diseases globally and has high mortality rates. A variety of diagnostic tests are available, yet none are wholly reliable. Serum cytokines, although significantly and frequently induced by different diseases and thus good biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis, are not sufficiently disease-specific. TB-specific antibody detection, on the other hand, has been reported to be highly specific but not sufficiently sensitive. In this study, our aim was to improve the sensitivity and specificity of TB diagnosis by combining detection of TB-related cytokines and TB-specific antibodies in peripheral blood samples.MethodsTB-related serum cytokines were screened using a human cytokine array. TB-related cytokines and TB-specific antibodies were detected in parallel with microarray technology. The diagnostic performance of the new protocol for active TB was systematically compared with other traditional methods.ResultsHere, we show that cytokines I-309, IL-8 and MIG are capable of distinguishing patients with active TB from healthy controls, patients with latent TB infection, and those with a range of other pulmonary diseases, and that these cytokines, and their presence alongside antibodies for TB-specific antigens Ag14-16kDa, Ag32kDa, Ag38kDa and Ag85B, are specific markers for active TB. The diagnostic protocol for active TB developed here, which combines the detection of three TB-related cytokines and TB-specific antibodies, is highly sensitive (91.03%), specific (90.77%) and accurate (90.87%).ConclusionsOur results show that combining detection of TB-related cytokines and TB-specific antibodies significantly enhances diagnostic accuracy for active TB, providing greater accuracy than conventional diagnostic methods such as interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs), TB antibody Colloidal Gold Assays and microbiological culture, and suggest that this diagnostic protocol has potential for clinical application.