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More than apples and oranges - Detecting cancer with a fruit fly's antenna

2014; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 4; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/srep03576

2045-2322

Martin Strauch, Alja Lüdke, Daniel Münch, Thomas Laudes, C. Giovanni Galizia, Eugenio Martinelli, Luca Lavra, Roberto Paolesse, Alessandra Ulivieri, Alexandro Catini, Rosamaria Capuano, Corrado Di Natale,

Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies

Cancer cells and non-cancer cells differ in their metabolism and they emit distinct volatile compound profiles, allowing to recognise cancer cells by their scent. Insect odorant receptors are excellent chemosensors with high sensitivity and a broad receptive range unmatched by current gas sensors. We thus investigated the potential of utilising the fruit fly's olfactory system to detect cancer cells. Using in vivo calcium imaging, we recorded an array of olfactory receptor neurons on the fruit fly's antenna. We performed multidimensional analysis of antenna responses, finding that cell volatiles from different cell types lead to characteristic response vectors. The distances between these response vectors are conserved across flies and can be used to discriminate healthy mammary epithelial cells from different types of breast cancer cells. This may expand the repertoire of clinical diagnostics and it is the first step towards electronic noses equipped with biological sensors, integrating artificial and biological olfaction.