Health
Ants can ‘sniff out’ cancer, research reveals
Scientists demonstrated how a species of ants, Formica fusca, has a well-developed sense of smell
A new study has discovered that ants have the ability to sniff out cancerous cells in humans—suggesting they could be used for cancer diagnosis in future.
As per details, a group of researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) demonstrated how a species of ants, Formica fusca, has a well-developed sense of smell.
After a few minutes of training, these insects, which use smell for daily tasks, were able to differentiate healthy human cells from cancerous human cells.
However, more clinical tests must be carried out before they could be used in clinical settings like hospitals.
They suggest that in future, ants could turn out to be better at dogs when it comes to locating cancerous cells in humans.
As per reports, the scientists performed tests with 36 ants, smelling cells under a laboratory setting.
First, the specialists exposed the ants to the smell of a sample of cancerous human cells. This odor was then associated with a reward of sugar solution.
In a second step, the researchers exposed the ants to two different odors—one was a new smell and the second was the smell of the cancerous cells.
As such, the scientists found that 'ants discriminate between cancerous and healthy cells and between two cancerous lines'.
By analysing the compounds emitted by various cells, the scientists have shown that each cell line had its own smell that could be used by the ants to detect them.
Cancer detection is a major public health challenge, and the methods currently available to achieve it, for example MRIs and mammograms, are often expensive and invasive.
This limits their large-scale use. To bypass these constraints, alternative methods are being studied, like the use of animals’ sense of smell.