Volatolomics in healthcare and its advanced detection technology

Abstract

Various diseases increasingly challenge the health status and life quality of human beings. Volatolome emitted from patients has been considered as a potential family of markers, volatolomics, for diagnosis/screening. There are two fundamental issues of volatolomics in healthcare. On one hand, the solid relationship between the volatolome and specific diseases needs to be clarified and verified. On the other hand, effective methods should be explored for the precise detection of volatolome. Several comprehensive review articles had been published in this field. However, a timely and systematical summary and elaboration is still desired. In this review article, the research methodology of volatolomics in healthcare is critically considered and given out, at first. Then, the sets of volatolome according to specific diseases through different body sources and the analytical instruments for their identifications are systematically summarized. Thirdly, the advanced electronic nose and photonic nose technologies for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detection are well introduced. The existed obstacles and future perspectives are deeply thought and discussed. This article could give a good guidance to researchers in this interdisciplinary field, not only understanding the cutting-edge detection technologies for doctors (medicinal background), but also making reference to clarify the choice of aimed VOCs during the sensor research for chemists, materials scientists, electronics engineers, etc.

Fine Pore‐Structure Engineering by Ligand Conformational Control of Naphthalene Diimide‐Based Semiconducting Porous Coordination Polymers for Efficient Chemiresistive Gas Sensing

“…Intriguingly, the Zn−pyNDI shows high selectivity toward acetone rather than NH 3 and toluene (Figures 4a, 4b, and Figure S29), of which the response and recovery time toward 10 ppm of acetone are 2.8 and 3.3 min, respectively (Figure S30). The unique PCP‐dependent selectivity indicates their promising application in the electronic nose (E‐nose) used in breath analysis for diagnosis/screening [15] . Acetone vapor adsorption further confirmed the strong interaction between Zn−pyNDI and acetone at room temperature.…”

“…The unique PCP-dependent selectivity indicates their promising application in the electronic nose (E-nose) used in breath analysis for diagnosis/ screening. [15] Acetone vapor adsorption further confirmed the strong interaction between ZnÀ pyNDI and acetone at room temperature. At an acetone pressure of 25.2 kPa, the adsorption uptake is 91.08 mL g À 1 for ZnÀ pyNDI, much higher than that of CoÀ pyNDI and NiÀ pyNDI (Figure S31).…”

C. elegans as a Powerful Tool for Cancer Screening

“…The volatilome is complex, and the e-nose must be sensitive, specific, and selective [ 49 , 50 , 51 ]. While the link between the volatilome in body fluid, exhaled breath, and diseases continues to be explored and further validated, efforts are underway to develop e-nose technologies for the clinic [ 52 , 53 , 54 ].…”

Emerging Strategies Based on Sensors for Chronic Wound Monitoring and Management

“…For instance, in the case of wound formation and healing, colonization of different bacterial and fungal species on the wound surface prompts the release of different VOCs, as depicted in Figure 7a. These VOC biomarkers have a long list [78,79], among which some commonly observed compounds are organic acids (n-hexanoic, 2-methylhexanoic, n-octanoic, n-decanoic, n-undecanoic), carbonyls (γ-C8-lactone, γ-C9-lactone, γ-C10-lactone), and alcohol (phenol, tetradecanol, n-hexadecanol) [80]. The concentration profiles of these VOCs are very different from one another and are not uniform in each patient.…”