USENSE : A proof‐of‐concept self‐screening tool for home‐based recurrent urinary tract infection management

Source abstract

Abstract In this work, we report a novel proof‐of‐concept biosensing diagnostic tool for the multiplexed electrochemical quantitation of a unique combination of three UTI ‐relevant biomarkers, Prostaglandin E2 ( PGE2 ), Interleukin‐8 ( IL ‐8), and Lipopolysaccharide ( LPS ), in unfiltered human urine. The proposed device, called USENSE , integrates lateral flow microfluidic channels, a gold‐based sensor array for quantifying PGE2 , IL ‐8, and LPS levels, and a random forest machine learning model for reliable diagnosis of UTI . The device is unique as it not only acts as a diagnostic device but also provides information on UTI by providing a risk score for UTI recurrence. USENSE is culture‐free and label‐free, requires no sample preparation at the user end, and can be adapted for use in home‐based self‐screening. In less than 5 minutes, USENSE directly measures the urinary concentration of PGE2 , IL ‐8, and LPS and provides a UTI severity state classification: 0 = Healthy, 1 = Asymptomatic Bacteriuria, 2 = Symptomatic; low risk of relapse, 3 = Symptomatic; high risk of UTI relapse. In postmenopausal women, the PGE2 , IL8 , and LPS concentrations measured via the device correlated well with the levels measured using traditional enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA ). Our machine learning diagnostic model allowed for UTI diagnosis with 93% test accuracy and UTI prognosis state classification with >84% accuracy for the human urine samples tested. Further development of USENSE for clinical and home‐based use could create a paradigm shift in point‐of‐care UTI diagnostics by allowing timely intervention and minimizing unwarranted empirical administration of antibiotics.