Advancing Point-of-Care Testing for Helicobacter pylori toward CRISPR-Cas-Enabled Diagnostics

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) chronically infects nearly half of the global population and is a major risk factor for gastric cancer. Timely and accurate diagnosis is critical to enable targeted eradication therapy and prevent disease progression. However, current gold-standard methods, such as invasive endoscopy and laboratory-based polymerase chain reaction, are costly, time-consuming, and logistically impractical for large-scale screening, particularly in resource-limited settings. Point-of-care testing (POCT) emerges as a transformative solution, offering rapid, user-friendly, and minimally invasive detection at the point of need. In this review, we systematically trace the evolution of H. pylori POCT, with a focus on revolutionary CRISPR-Cas-based diagnostic systems, cutting-edge advancements in substrate engineering (e.g., paper, polymer, hydrogels) and multi-modal signal transduction (e.g., optical, electrochemical). We further outline key design principles for next-generation POCT platforms that strictly align with the World Health Organization's ASSURED criteria (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment-free, Deliverable), aiming to accelerate early detection, reduce healthcare disparities, and improve global clinical management of H. pylori infection.