Ants Have the Ability to Sniff out Cancerous Cells in Humans螞蟻能嗅出癌細胞

Ants have the ability to sniff out cancerous cells in humans， a new study has discovered， suggesting they could be used for cancer diagnosis in future.

Researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research （CNRS） discovered that ant species Formica fusca has a well developed sense of smell.

It was able to differentiate cancerous cells from healthy cells in humans， thanks to their sense of smell. But more clinical tests must be carried out before they could be used in clinical settings like hospitals， the team said.

To conduct their research， the scientists performed tests with 36 ants， smelling cells under a laboratory setting.

First， the researchers exposed the ants to the smell of a sample of cancerous human cells. In a second step， they exposed the ants to two different odors. One was a new smell and the second was the smell of the cancerous cells.

Once this test was successful， the researchers exposed the ants to different cancerous cells.

一項新研究發現，螞蟻能嗅出人體內的癌細胞，這表明螞蟻未來可用于對癌癥的診斷。

法國國家科學研究中心的研究人員發現，絲光褐林蟻的嗅覺非常發達。

這種螞蟻的嗅覺超強，能夠將人體的癌細胞同健康細胞區分開來。但該研究團隊表示，還需要進行更多臨床測試才能將絲光褐林蟻用于醫院等臨床環境中。

為了開展這一研究，科學家用36只螞蟻進行了測試，讓它們在實驗室環境中聞細胞的氣味。

首先，研究人員讓螞蟻聞一份人體癌細胞的樣本。接下來，他們讓螞蟻聞兩種不同的氣味。一種是新氣味，另一種是癌細胞的氣味。

這一測試獲得成功后，研究人員又讓螞蟻聞兩種不同的癌細胞。

As such， the scientists found that ants differentiate between cancerous and healthy cells and between two cancerous lines.

After training， Formica fusca ants are able to detect volatile organic compounds sent out by cancerous cells.

“This first study shows that ants have high potential， are capable of learning very quickly， at lower cost， and are efficient，” points out CNRS in a news release.

This isn’t the first time that scientists have used the animal sense of smell to locate cancerous cells.

“Dogs’ noses are well suited for medical diagnosis and used for the detection of cancer-specific volatile organic compounds，”? the researchers explained.

However， training them to do so requires several months to a year.

“Ants therefore represent a fast， efficient， inexpensive， and highly discriminant detection tool for detection of cancer cell volatiles，”? the team explained.

“Our approach could potentially be adapted to a range of other complex odor detection tasks including the detection of narcotics， explosives， spoiled food， or other diseases， including malaria， infections， and diabetes.”

于是，科學家發現螞蟻能將癌細胞和健康細胞區分開來，也能分辨不同的癌細胞。

經過訓練，絲光褐林蟻能夠識別出癌細胞散發出的揮發性有機化合物。

法國國家科學研究中心在一份新聞稿中指出：“這項初步研究表明，螞蟻擁有巨大的潛力和快速的學習能力，不僅成本低而且高效。”

這不是科學家第一次利用動物嗅覺來識別癌細胞。

研究人員解釋道：“狗的鼻子很適合用于醫療診斷以及識別癌細胞的揮發性有機化合物。”

但是，讓狗學會識別癌細胞需要幾個月甚至一年的訓練。

該團隊解釋說：“因此螞蟻作為識別癌細胞揮發物的工具，既快速、高效、廉價，辨別力又強。”

“我們的方法未來也可用于其他一系列復雜的氣味識別任務，包括識別毒品、爆炸物、變質的食品或瘧疾、傳染病、糖尿病等疾病。”

Word Bank

sniff out 嗅出；找出

differentiate /'d?f?'ren?ie?t/ v. 區分；辨別

A child may not differentiate between his imagination and the real world.

odor /'??d?/ n. 氣味

capable /'ke?p?bl/ adj. 有能力；有才能

efficient /?'f??nt/ adj. 效率高的