Potential for Early Noninvasive COVID-19 Detection Using Electronic-Nose Technologies and Disease-Specific VOC Metabolic Biomarkers

Abstract

The established efficacy of electronic volatile organic compound (VOC) detection technologies as diagnostic tools for noninvasive early detection of COVID-19 and related coronaviruses has been demonstrated from multiple studies using a variety of experimental and commercial electronic devices capable of detecting precise mixtures of VOC emissions in human breath. The activities of numerous global research teams, developing novel electronic-nose (e-nose) devices and diagnostic methods, have generated empirical laboratory and clinical trial test results based on the detection of different types of host VOC-biomarker metabolites from specific chemical classes. COVID-19-specific volatile biomarkers are derived from disease-induced changes in host metabolic pathways by SARS-CoV-2 viral pathogenesis. The unique mechanisms proposed from recent researchers to explain how COVID-19 causes damage to multiple organ systems throughout the body are associated with unique symptom combinations, cytokine storms and physiological cascades that disrupt normal biochemical processes through gene dysregulation to generate disease-specific VOC metabolites targeted for e-nose detection. This paper reviewed recent methods and applications of e-nose and related VOC-detection devices for early, noninvasive diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections. In addition, metabolomic (quantitative) COVID-19 disease-specific chemical biomarkers, consisting of host-derived VOCs identified from exhaled breath of patients, were summarized as possible sources of volatile metabolic biomarkers useful for confirming and supporting e-nose diagnoses.

A Retrospective Analysis of Indoor CO2 Measurements Obtained with a Mobile Robot during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The measurement system will be adapted to improve the control and sustainability of the management of the HVAC [68,79]. Finally, another promising improvement is the integration of a CO 2 sensor in a compact eNose, trained to operate fully as an early non-invasive detector of airborne transmitted pandemic outbreaks [80,81].…”

Developments of Recent Applications for Early Diagnosis of Diseases Using Electronic-Nose and Other VOC-Detection Devices

“…The comprehensive review by Wilson and Forse [ 10 ] summarizes results from a wide range of recent international research studies that tested many types of e-nose devices and methods for their capabilities of COVID-19 detection in various healthcare situations and applications. A comparison of the differences in human symptom combinations vs. organs affected and deaths associated with COVID-19 disease vs. those associated with other prior viral pandemics in human history are elucidated.…”

“…The Wilson and Forse review [ 10 ] also suggested new ways in which e-nose data may be combined with corresponding chemical data (from the same clinical sample) that identifies COVID-19 specific disease biomarkers to increase, confirm, and strengthen the certainty of disease diagnoses. These types of analyses could be simultaneously carried out using dual-technology e-nose devices individually or in combination with instruments with VOC analytical chemistry capabilities.…”

Investigation of Harmful Substances to Health Using Electronic Nose and Weight Elimination Algorithm With Correlative Gaussian Function

“…Electronic nose systems can be used in a wide range of applications such as agriculture [18][19][20][21][22][23], environmental monitoring [24][25][26], food [27][28][29][30][31][32], quality control [33][34][35][36][37], military [38][39][40], and medical applications [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] like pharmaceutical, biomedical, disease and illness early detection, cosmetics, and numerous scientific research domains.…”