Scientists now say that they have invented a machine which can
smell cancer - the new "electronic nose" (an odor sniffing machine
[e-nose]) that is on par with a mammogram, which can detect breast
cancer. Does this mean that other "disease sniffers" may also be on the
way?
It is said by many people, that an illness can actually be
smelt - that is to say, diseases such as: anaerobic infections (the skin
and sweat smells of rotten apples), bladder infections (the urine
smells of ammonia [window cleaner]), diabetes (the breath smells of
acetone-like [nail polish remover]), liver failure (the breath smells of
raw fish), etc., and the list just goes on and on - with the smell of
decay coming from an individual that is ill.
Previous to the new
electronic nose that can smell-out decay within a person - scientists
began to take note that certain people who had cancer, or who had come
into contact with the same, noticed a kind of decay smell in the air (a
prostate cancer sufferer's wife once commented that her husband smelt
like he was decaying).
As history teaches us - doctors have for
many years smelt the breath (a very common sign of illness) of patients,
together with urine and stool samples to help with certain diagnoses.
Yellow fever is often said to smell like the odor found in a butcher's
shop, whereas typhoid often gives-off an odor of freshly baked brown
bread.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (led
by Mats J. Olsson) recently completed studies which confirmed a
previously known link between illness and smell (studies were small,
although significant). As part of the make-up of the metabolism of a
person - certain smells are produced by the body and released into the
air (smells that can be picked-up).
Cancer cells are also believed
to release certain smells; although, many are too subtle for the human
nose to smell (due to a different pattern of chemicals being emitted by a
different metabolism). Humans have around 5-million scent receptors
(dogs are gifted with over 300 million). Because of this, dogs have been
trained with a 90% accuracy, to smell-out disease that would otherwise
be impossible to smell by humans.
The newly invented "electronic
odor sniffing machine" works with programmed sensors (hundreds of carbon
nanotubes, each with a strand of DNA attached [strands are capable of
transposing a mix of chemicals that are in the air into an electronic
signal]) that can replicate how a human's nose, and a dog's nose works.
A
recent study at the University of Konstanz in Germany (led by Martin
Strauch) also indicated that "fruit flies" are capable of smelling-out
cancer too(the scent of cancer samples tended to prompt a particular
pattern of activity on the flies' antennae [research continues to
identify which receptors on the antennae were responsible in hope of
being able to grow an antennae for use on an e-nose]).
Although
electronic noses are at an early stage of development, it is believed in
the future - if they can be used to detect diseases such as cancer at
an early stage, significant progress could be made in the early curation
of ill patients. It is also believed that such electronic noses could
be used to monitor patient's well-being, enabling doctors to help
eradicate early symptoms of disease - making the once sci-fi movie
technology - "one step closer to mankind. -By
Philip Albert Edmonds-Hunt
