New research shows that hearing ants, like dogs, have the potential to sniff out cancer cells
A team of French scientists has successfully carried out an interesting study, which demonstrates the feasibility of training ants to detect cancer in humans. The report shows that certain ant species can be trained to detect cancer cells, with accuracy comparable to that of other specialized animals, such as dogs.
We still know superior sense of smell Dogs are applied in many ways. Dogs can track drugs or explosives, and recently, dog noses have also found their way into the medical profession, when they can smell cancer, malaria or COVID-19.
However, training a guard dog is not easy. The training, which can last up to a year, leads scientists to try other susceptible animals, such as mice, honeybees or grasshoppers.
In the new study, researchers discovered a species of ant with the scientific name Formica fusca. Ants have the ability to detect some volatile organic compounds (VOCs), there are also studies showing that certain types of cancer secrete certain VOCs, such as prostate cancer.
Individual Formica fusca.
Tests by French experts focused on two types of cells present in breast cancer patients, both of which emit characteristic VOCs. After just three training sessions, the ants were able to distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells, with the same accuracy as dogs in a recent test.
“In terms of detection ability [bệnh ung thư]it can be said that ants are similar to dogs – the most intensively studied species of biological detection”, the research team confirmed in report. “In some ways, ants even outperform dogs by requiring shorter training times (only 3 months compared to dogs requiring 6-12 months) and reducing training and maintenance costs. Anyone can apply our research steps“.
Citing previous studies of ant training, the scientists hypothesized that each ant could correctly detect cancer up to nine times before an error occurred. This makes the use of ants in cancer detection more effective and less expensive than other animals.
However, a real-world situation would be very different from “sniffing” cancer in a laboratory dish.
“Since then, ants have become a fast, effective, and inexpensive cancer detection tool“, study conclude. “Our method can be applied to many other odor detection methods, including detecting drugs, explosives, spoiled food or many other diseases (including malaria, urinary tract infections or infections).“.
Currently, research only proves the method of using ants to detect cancer, so scientists will need a more in-depth study before officially implementing ants in airports and hospitals. One thing to do is to identify the VOCs associated with each cancer, and at the same time figure out how to use ants – tiny, hard-to-control animals – in the real world.
According to CNRS
at Blogtuan.info – Source: genk.vn – Read the original article here
