AGRO. – Don’t think of bees as valuable pollinators or producers of medicinal honey; it turns out that These insects are also excellent cancer diagnoses. For this type of medical research, scientists have invented a special bee uniform and a sensor.
Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered that honey bees can quickly and accurately detect biomarkers, or chemical concentrations, associated with human lung cancer in the breath, as well as identifying different types of lung cancer cells, using only the “smell” of cell cultures. . These results can be used as model for the development of new tests for the early diagnosis of lung cancer. The study was published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
“Insects have an amazing sense of smell, just like dogs.”said Debajit Saha, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and the Institute for Quantitative Health Sciences and Engineering at Michigan State University.
Elissa Cox, former director of Saha’s lab, and Michael Parnas, a doctoral student working in the lab, developed a “recipe” for synthetic breath using varying levels of six compounds, such as trichlorethylene and 2-methylheptane, to mimic the chemical composition of the breath of a patient with lung cancer in one case and healthy breathing in another.
“We tested these synthetic mixtures on about 20 bees and also developed a special 3D printed harness that could hold a live bee while placing a small electrode in its brain to measure any changes in the bee’s brain signals,” – said Cox.
“We transmit these odors to the bees’ antennae and record the neural signals in their brains. We saw a change in the bee’s neural activity response and were able to measure how many cancer-indicating compounds must be present in a person’s breath for a bee to detect cancer. The bees detected very small concentrations, which is an excellent result,” Saha added.
“We found several different neurons that activate in the bee brain that clearly distinguish between synthetic breathing caused by lung cancer and healthy breathing.”Parnas noted.
Next, experiments were performed on cultured human lung cancer cells with the help of Christopher Contag, director of the Quantitative Health Sciences and Engineering Institute at Michigan State University, and his laboratory.
For these experiments, different types of human lung cancer cell cultures were grown in sealed flasks and a bee brain-based sensor was used to test the smell of lung cancer cells.
Researchers have successfully demonstrated that this bee brain-based sensor can distinguish between small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer cells, and healthy cells.
According to scientists, the amazing ability of bees not only to detect cancer cells, but also to distinguish cell lines of different types of lung cancer, can be used to quickly diagnose specific types of cancer and choose the appropriate treatment.
The team is developing a non-invasive test that will only require patients to breathe into the device, and a sensor inside, based on bees’ brains, will analyze the breath and wirelessly report in real time whether cancerous chemicals are present. present.
Source: Michigan State University Photo: Saha Laboratory.
