United States – Halitosis may suggest a whole lot concerning you. But soon, it could be used to tell if you have lung cancer — if a honeybee gets a whiff.
Some researchers from Michigan State University have established that honeybees can identify the compounds linked with lung cancer in human breath, as reported by The Hills.
Revolutionary Research
“The best way to describe it is that insects have an incredible ability to smell just as dogs are capable of smelling,” explained Debajit Saha, an assistant professor at MSU’s Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering.
Saha and his team made a formulation of a synthetic breath mixture that used varying concentrations of six chemical constituents. One version created the breath of fresh air from a healthy organism, and the other created the chemical composition of the breath of a person with lung cancer.
The Experiment
In this experiment, the bees tested included a live honeybee that had a harness and shoe attached to it to hold the bee and place an electrode on its head to record its brain activity.
“We pass those odors on to the antenna of the honeybees and recorded the neural signals from their brain,” said Saha. “We (saw) a change in the honeybee’s neural firing response.”
The researchers counted more neurons in the bees’ brain and distinguished the smell of the synthetic lung cancer breath and the smell of a healthy breath.
The practical implications of this research are profound. The team plans to develop a sensor that replicates the honey bee’s brain, which could be integrated into an inhaler. This innovative device would enable patients to detect the presence of cancer chemicals within minutes of use, as reported by The Hills.
The Impact of Lung Cancer
Lung cancer ranks second in the US among men after prostate cancer and among women after breast cancer. It has been estimated by The American Cancer Society that it will affect over 234,000 persons and it will claim about 125,000 lives.