Scientists are currently working on diagnostic techniques that might detect chemical compounds in breath, sweat, tears and other bodily emissions that act as fingerprints for thousands of diseases.
Each disease has a unique signature that this new technology might detect
When you smell a perfume, and you catch the smell of flowers or spices, or a whiff of pollutants, what your body is really sensing are volatile organic compounds. These are chemicals that have a low boiling point and therefore evaporate easily. Simply put, they are volatile and these chemicals as a group are called volatile organic compounds or VOCs.
All organisms deliberately release VOCs for a variety of purposes, including defense, communication, and reproduction. But VOCs are also released accidentally as part of all biological processes, including disease-related processes. Those released are also unique to each of these processes. This means that there is a particular VOC “signature” or “fingerprint” for each disease.
These disease-related VOCs are also released long before people realize something is wrong with their bodies. And this was long before a doctor might apply any diagnostic technique: whether through blood tests, X-rays, tissue samples or any other examination, or laboratory work.
The creation of Volatolomics requires the combination of several disciplines
But to get this concept, known as “volatolomics”, across, will require collaboration between many professionals who master different disciplines. This includes researchers such as chemists, materials scientists, and electrical engineers who rarely speak the same language and are unfamiliar with each other’s discoveries.
A revolution in medicine
Many diseases, especially cancers, are easier to treat the earlier they are diagnosed. So if researchers and clinicians are able to categorize the VOC fingerprint of different diseases and engineers are able to develop devices that can quickly identify those fingerprints.
This technology might potentially revolutionize medicine’s ability to diagnose and ultimately treat disease. As a bonus, the lack of need for an invasive procedure thanks to the device only requiring a ‘sniff’ means it would also be painless, unlike many existing diagnostic techniques.
