Researchers at Michigan State University have demonstrated that grasshoppers can do more than just tell cancerous cells from healthy ones. They can actually differentiate between distinct cancer cell lines. The findings come from a BioRxiv preprint that shares early results of this work.
Why grasshoppers? These insects provide a practical model for neuroscience studies because their brains are accessible enough to attach electrodes without excessive technical difficulty. In the experiments, scientists monitored the grasshoppers’ brain activity while exposing them to gas samples emitted by both healthy cells and cancerous cells. The researchers then translated the neural responses into chemical profiles that characterize different cell types. The results show that the grasshopper brain can reliably tell cancerous oral-cavity cells apart from healthy cells and can even resolve three subtypes within the cancer group studied.
Cancer cells typically behave differently from normal cells, producing distinctive chemical compounds as part of their altered metabolism. When these compounds enter the respiratory tract, they can be detected in the air that people inhale in the environment or in clinical settings.
This line of work could lay the groundwork for electronic-nose devices that identify cancer biomarkers in gases by leveraging sensory neurons from insects. If realized, such devices could enable doctors to detect multiple cancer types at very early stages, potentially improving survival rates for patients. Research into electronic noses has progressed for roughly 15 years, and the current findings may speed up practical development in this field. (Attribution: Michigan State University researchers, BioRxiv preprint).