It is common knowledge that like other pollinators, bees are keystones of many ecosystems and, by extension, contribute to the survival of the human species. But in the future, they could save lives in even more direct ways. According to a recent study, these fascinating insects are capable of detect lung cancer in human breath.
When we think of animals that have the most powerful sense of smell, it’s usually canines that come to mind first. Man’s best friend and his cousins are indeed blessed with particularly exceptional noses, and our species has learned to trust them in many activities. We can cite the relief missions; dogs are second to none when it comes to finding mountaineers buried by avalanches or people buried under rubble after an earthquake. Police forces also use it to locate explosives or illicit substances.
Insects also have fine noses
More recently, the medical profession has also begun to take an interest in this superpower. We know, for example, that certain dogs are capable of sensing abnormally low blood sugar levels in a diabetic person, and of alerting them before they even notice the first signs. More recently, researchers have also begun to explore their ability to detect many forms of infections and even cancers just by smell.
But dogs are not the only animals that have an overdeveloped sense of smell. This is also the case for many insects, including bees.. Their antennas are capable of reacting to many chemical compounds with an astonishing level of sensitivity. They rely on this very fine sense to locate mature flowers, to detect the pheromones emitted by their congeners, or to track down intruders within their hive.
Researchers at Michigan State University therefore wondered whether, like dogs, these insects might be able to identify the chemical signature of tumors associated with cancers.
Very convincing results
To test this hypothesis, the team behind this work designed two different “perfumes”. The first imitated the breathing of a healthy human; in the second, they added substances like trichlorethylene or 2-methylheptane to simulate the breath of a person with lung cancer.
The researchers then installed tiny electrodes on the heads of a series of bees. This device makes it possible to measure variations in their brain activity in order to check whether they reacted to this cocktail. With this purely physiological approach which excludes all behavioral variables, they hoped to obtain perfectly objective raw results.
Faced with the control samples, the researchers observed no response from the bees. On the other hand, once the guinea pigs were confronted with these volatile compounds associated with cancer, the researchers observed a real neuronal fireworks display. And this even with very low concentrations. These results prove that bees are capable of detecting the chemical signature of lung cancer, and with astonishing sensitivity.
“ The bees detected very low concentrations; it was a very strong result », Explains Debajit Saha, co-author of the study. “ They can differentiate minute changes in the chemical composition of the breath, on the order of one part per billion “, he specifies. For reference, this is the equivalent of a drop of liquid diluted in a 50,000 liter tank !
Delighted by these preliminary results, the team took their experiment further. The researchers cultured different types of real lung cells, some healthy and some cancerous. They then repeated their protocol based on the neuronal response. And here again, the results were impressive: the bees still reacted to malignant tumors. And after dissecting this data, the researchers realized that they were also capable of ddistinguish chemical signatures of cell lines associated with different types of lung cancer. A point that is anything but negligible, because not all variants of the disease are managed in the same way at the clinical level.
Towards new non-invasive tests
In their press release, the researchers suggest that this work could pave the way for new cancer detection devices. Saha and his troops now plan to design breath-based tests to detect these chemical compounds typical of lung cancer, even in very small quantities. A sort ofbreathalyzer specialized in tumors, in short. This type of test would have obvious advantages over invasive methods, such as biopsies.
This would be a great tool, considering that the patient’s chances of survival are generally much higher when the disease is detected very early. It will therefore be interesting to see if this product reaches maturity, and if so, if it is possible to use it to detect other forms of cancer.
The text of the study is available here.
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