The scent of human diseases: a review on specific volatile organic compounds as diagnostic biomarkers

Buljubasic, Fanis; Buchbauer, Gerhard

doi:10.1002/ffj.3219

Cited by 102 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 126 publications

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“…However, volatile organic compounds released from scats would evolve through time (Statheropoulos, Agapiou, & Pallis, ), so it is unknown how the detection dog performance would change with longer exposure of the scats to the environment. Our current results also suggest that the volatile organic compounds, sometimes referred to as biomarkers of diseases (Buljubasic & Buchbauer, ), produced by the metabolism of Chlamydia and/or the somewhat unique inflammatory process induced in chlamydiosis‐affected koalas, are present in the scats regardless to the site of infection. This could occur if the compounds enter the blood stream, and then contaminate the scats through the epithelium of the digestive system.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Developing noninvasive methodologies to assess koala population health through detecting Chlamydia from scats

Cristescu

Miller

Schultz

et al. 2019

Molecular Ecology Resources

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Wildlife diseases are a recognized driver of global biodiversity loss, have substantial economic impacts, and are increasingly becoming a threat to human health. Disease surveillance is critical but remains difficult in the wild due to the substantial costs and potential biases associated with most disease detection methods. Noninvasive scat surveys have been proposed as a health monitoring methodology to overcome some of these limitations. Here, we use the known threat of Chlamydia disease to the iconic, yet vulnerable, koala Phascolarctos cinereus to compare three methods for Chlamydia detection in scats: multiplex quantitative PCR, next generation sequencing, and a detection dog specifically trained on scats from Chlamydia‐infected koalas. All three methods demonstrated 100% specificity, while sensitivity was variable. Of particular interest is the variable sensitivity of these diagnostic tests to detect sick individuals (i.e., not only infection as confirmed by Chlamydia‐positive swabs, but with observable clinical signs of the disease); for koalas with urogenital tract disease signs, sensitivity was 78% with quantitative PCR, 50% with next generation genotyping and 100% with the detection dog method. This may be due to molecular methods having to rely on high‐quality DNA whereas the dog most likely detects volatile organic compounds. The most appropriate diagnostic test will vary with disease prevalence and the specific aims of disease surveillance. Acknowledging that detection dogs might not be easily accessible to all, the future development of affordable and portable “artificial noses” to detect diseases from scats in the field might enable cost‐effective, rapid and large‐scale disease surveillance.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Developing noninvasive methodologies to assess koala population health through detecting Chlamydia from scats

Cristescu

Miller

Schultz

et al. 2019

Molecular Ecology Resources

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“…Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) analysis is a developing field with tremendous promise to advance personalized, non-invasive health diagnostic as new optimized analytical instrumentation platforms and detection methods are developed [1, 2]. Exhaled breath contains potentially valuable metabolomic content due to gas exchange with blood at the pulmonary alveolar membrane interface [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human breath metabolomics using an optimized non-invasive exhaled breath condensate sampler

et al. 2016

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Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) analysis is a developing field with tremendous promise to advance personalized, non-invasive health diagnostics as new analytical instrumentation platforms and detection methods are developed. Multiple commercially-available and researcher-built experimental samplers are reported in the literature. However, there is very limited information available to determine an effective breath sampling approach, especially regarding the dependence of breath sample metabolomic content on the collection device design and sampling methodology. This lack of an optimal standard procedure results in a range of reported results that are sometimes contradictory. Here, we present a design of a portable human EBC sampler optimized for collection and preservation of the rich metabolomic content of breath. The performance of the engineered device is compared to two commercially available breath collection devices: the RTube™ and TurboDECCS. A number of design and performance parameters are considered, including: condenser temperature stability during sampling, collection efficiency, condenser material choice, and saliva contamination in the collected breath samples. The significance of the biological content of breath samples, collected with each device, is evaluated with a set of mass spectrometry methods and was the primary factor for evaluating device performance. The design includes an adjustable mass-size threshold for aerodynamic filtering of saliva droplets from the breath flow. Engineering an inexpensive device that allows efficient collection of metalomic-rich breath samples is intended to aid further advancement in the field of breath analysis for non-invasive health diagnostic. EBC sampling from human volunteers was performed under UC Davis IRB protocol 63701-3 (09/30/2014-07/07/2017).

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“…6,8,9,21 Urine contains a wide range of metabolites including ketones, alcohols, pyrroles and sulfur-containing compounds. 5 The diversity of VOCs in terms of chemical properties, functional groups and polarities presents challenges that need to be addressed by more sensitive analytical methods. In the present study, solid phase microextraction (SPME) was optimized and validated followed by GCMS, for quantitative analysis of a wide range of urinary biomarkers in patients with CD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A targeted metabolomic protocol for quantitative analysis of volatile organic compounds in urine of children with celiac disease

2018

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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in biological samples have gained popularity for disease monitoring and diagnosis. Celiac disease (CD) is one of the many prevalent health conditions which are challenging to diagnose. The aim of this study was to optimize a solid phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, for quantitative analysis of a wide range of VOCs in the urine of patients with CD. Multivariate design of experiment was used to optimize the extraction conditions for the analysis of 15 urinary VOCs. Based on the performed experiments, extraction using 2.98 g of sodium chloride and 21 mL of 6 M hydrochloric acid for 15 min at 30 C, using a CAR/PDMS fiber in headspace mode was found to be the most effective procedure for the analysis of the selected biomarkers. It was also demonstrated that the proposed method could distinguish between children with CD and healthy children based on the profile of VOCs. It is believed that quantitative analysis of these biomarkers will extend our understanding of CD and could be used for monitoring in patients under treatment.

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The scent of human diseases: a review on specific volatile organic compounds as diagnostic biomarkers

Cited by 102 publications

References 126 publications

Developing noninvasive methodologies to assess koala population health through detecting Chlamydia from scats

Developing noninvasive methodologies to assess koala population health through detecting Chlamydia from scats

Human breath metabolomics using an optimized non-invasive exhaled breath condensate sampler

A targeted metabolomic protocol for quantitative analysis of volatile organic compounds in urine of children with celiac disease

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