Dual-Mode Detection of Urinary Chemokine and Ion Imbalance of BPS/IC Patients Toward Therapeutic Efficacy Assessment

Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is a chronic urological condition characterized by pelvic pain and urinary urgency, often misdiagnosed due to symptom overlap with other analogous disorders. The absence of specific, noninvasive biomarkers complicates its diagnosis and hinders effective monitoring of disease progression and therapeutic response. C-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5) is recognized as a potential inflammatory biomarker for BPS/IC, while urinary potassium (K<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup>) levels reflect epithelial barrier dysfunction. In this letter, we present a novel screen-printed, low-cost, and rapid electrochemical sensor for simultaneous point-of-care detection of CCL5 and K<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> in urine samples. The sensor employs immunosensing and ion-selective membrane strategies to achieve excellent sensitivity, selectivity, and operational stability, having a low detection limit of 60 fg/mL and 80 pM for CCL5 and K<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> ion sensing electrodes. The dual-detection approach offers valuable insights into both inflammatory status and urothelial integrity, holds promise for early diagnosis and therapeutic strategy with improved patient stratification, and real-time personalized monitoring in BPS/IC.