Science Desk, Jan 27 (EFE).- A team of French scientists is on a quest to teach ants how to sniff out the early stages of cancer in humans and have claimed in a recent study that the tiny insects have already started to demonstrate a 20% success rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the experiments are in the early stages and require more research, the results \u201care promising,\u201d the study\u2019s lead Baptiste Piqueret said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The potential for ants to become a cheap bio-detector of human cancer cells by training them to recognize certain scents, a process known as olfactory conditioning, was set out in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tumor cells produce a volatile organic compound (VOC) that can be used as a biomarker for cancer. Animals such as dogs have been trained to detect VOCs in cell samples or body odor but this ability is not restricted to the four-legged realm, as the scientists have shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among insects, ants \u2013 especially the species Formica fusca, more commonly known as a dusty ant \u2013 have demonstrated an acute sense of smell and are quick learners, the researchers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists taught the ants to differentiate between urine samples taken from healthy mice and mice inserted with human breast cancer tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter training, they spend approximately 20% more time in the vicinity of the learned odor than beside the other stimulus,\u201d the study said, adding that the insects reached such a level of accuracy after just three conditioning trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChemical analyses confirmed that the presence of the tumor changed the urine odor, supporting the behavioral results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur study demonstrates that ants reliably detect tumor cues in mice urine and have the potential to act as efficient and inexpensive cancer bio-detectors.\u201d EFE
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