Teaching ants to detect cancerous tumors in mice through their sense of smell.
A group of scientists from Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Université Paris-Saclay, and also Institut Universitaire de France has discovered that it is possible to train the insect to smell cancerous tumors in mice. In their research study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers trained groups of ants to react to chemicals in urine samples that were associated with cancerous tumors.
The wonders of ants
Ants have a superb sense of smell. And cancerous tumors in animals, including human beings, produce chemical compounds that can get into urine samples. Some research studies have demonstrated that specific animals can detect those chemical compounds through smell dogs are a prime example; however, others, such as roundworms, can do so too. In this new effort, the researchers wondered if the same may be true for ants and whether they should be used as an early cancer detection method. They carried out straightforward experiments to determine the answer, which involved training clusters of ants to detect tumor chemicals by giving them sweet incentives.
The scientists found that not only might the ants discern the urine samples from cancerous mice against those that were cancer-free, but they would also be taught to do so in ten minutes. After successfully teaching the ants to link a sweet reward with urine containing tumor chemicals from a mouse with cancer, the researchers proceeded to the next stage of testing. This involved implanting breast cancer tumor tissue obtained from human patients into multiple mice and allowing the tumors to grow. Subsequently, the researchers collected urine samples from both healthy mice and those implanted with tumors and exposed them to the trained ants.
The researchers observed that the ants spent about 20% more time smelling samples derived from mice with tumors. The scientists suggest that the ants could distinguish between urine from mice with cancer against those that were healthy. The following stage of their research will include finding out if the ants could do the same with human urine.
Read the original article on PHYS.
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