Cancer cells produce volatile organic compounds that can be used as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. You’ve no doubt already heard of these research programs aimed at using canine sense of smell as a screening tool.
With this in mind to take advantage of animal capacities, French scientists had the idea of using ants. Insects capable of quickly learning to associate an olfactory stimulus with a food reward and which can retain this information for a long period of time.
A project which, if successful, could lead to a less invasive and less expensive alternative to current detection methods such as MRIs or mammograms.
Like dogs?
But back to our ants. This group of scientists from the CNRS, the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, the Institut Curie and Inserm highlighted the performance of a very specific species of small critters called Formica fusca.
The insects first received a little training: they were exposed to the smell of a sample of human cancer cells. A smell that was later associated with a sweet solution reward.
After this apprenticeship of a few minutes, the ants, which use olfaction for their daily tasks, managed to differentiate healthy human cells from cancerous human cells.
In terms of detection capabilities, “ants are equivalent to dogs, note the authors. But in some respects, insects outperform dogs because they need an extremely short training time (30 minutes compared to 6-12 months for a dog) and low training and maintenance cost (honey and insects frozen twice a week). »
“The effectiveness of this method must be evaluated through clinical tests on a complete human organism. But this first study shows the high potential of ants,” rejoice the scientists.