The Versatility and Diagnostic Potential of VOC Profiling for Noninfectious Diseases

Abstract

A variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are produced and emitted by the human body every day. The identity and concentration of these VOCs reflect an individual’s metabolic condition. Information regarding the production and origin of VOCs, however, has yet to be congruent among the scientific community. This review article focuses on the recent investigations of the source and detection of biological VOCs as a potential for noninvasive discrimination between healthy and diseased individuals. Analyzing the changes in the components of VOC profiles could provide information regarding the molecular mechanisms behind disease as well as presenting new approaches for personalized screening and diagnosis. VOC research has prioritized the study of cancer, resulting in many research articles and reviews being written on the topic. This review summarizes the information gained about VOC cancer studies over the past 10 years and looks at how this knowledge correlates with and can be expanded to new and upcoming fields of VOC research, including neurodegenerative and other noninfectious diseases. Recent advances in analytical techniques have allowed for the analysis of VOCs measured in breath, urine, blood, feces, and skin. New diagnostic approaches founded on sensor-based techniques allow for cheaper and quicker results, and we compare their diagnostic dependability with gas chromatography- and mass spectrometry-based techniques. The future of VOC analysis as a clinical practice and the challenges associated with this transition are also discussed and future research priorities are summarized.

Pancreatic Cancer and Detection Methods

“…VOCs, as the terminal cell metabolism with poor solubility in blood, traverse the circulatory system and are finally emitted in diverse biological fluids, such as blood, breath, feces, milk, saliva, semen, sweat, and urine [ 169 , 170 ]. In medical practices, these fluids are frequently used as VOC detection samples due to their easy accessibility and inexhaustibility [ 171 ]. However, collecting VOC samples requires specific procedures.…”

“…VOCs in the bodily fluids can be used to analyze an individual’s metabolic state. Healthy individuals can contain up to 2746 VOCs in their body fluids [ 174 ], whereas cancer patients’ VOC profiles may result from the dysregulation of metabolic pathways associated with tumor growth [ 171 ]. Since readily accessible biomarkers are crucial in developing a personalized medicine strategy for therapeutics, extensive research has been conducted on VOCs as mostly non-invasive and sensitive biomarkers for clinical applications, focusing on an oncology [ 169 , 170 ].…”

Hypoxia and lactate influence VOC production in A549 lung cancer cells

“…Cancer odor is one of the current emergent topics in cancer research in view of preventive medicine and early detection of cancer by non-invasive clinical tests ( Oxner et al, 2023 ). Cancers are known to emit odor.…”