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(xiàng)新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，螞蟻能嗅出人體內(nèi)的癌細(xì)胞，這表明螞蟻未來可用于對(duì)癌癥的診斷。

法國國家科學(xué)研究中心的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，絲光褐林蟻的嗅覺非常發(fā)達(dá)。

這種螞蟻的嗅覺超強(qiáng)，能夠?qū)⑷梭w的癌細(xì)胞同健康細(xì)胞區(qū)分開來。但該研究團(tuán)隊(duì)表示，還需要進(jìn)行更多臨床測(cè)試才能將絲光褐林蟻用于醫(yī)院等臨床環(huán)境中。

為了開展這一研究，科學(xué)家用36只螞蟻進(jìn)行了測(cè)試，讓它們?cè)趯?shí)驗(yàn)室環(huán)境中聞細(xì)胞的氣味。

首先，研究人員讓螞蟻聞一份人體癌細(xì)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(xì)胞的氣味。

這一測(cè)試獲得成功后，研究人員又讓螞蟻聞兩種不同的癌細(xì)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(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)螞蟻能將癌細(xì)胞和健康細(xì)胞區(qū)分開來，也能分辨不同的癌細(xì)胞。

經(jīng)過訓(xùn)練，絲光褐林蟻能夠識(shí)別出癌細(xì)胞散發(fā)出的揮發(fā)性有機(jī)化合物。

法國國家科學(xué)研究中心在一份新聞稿中指出：“這項(xiàng)初步研究表明，螞蟻擁有巨大的潛力和快速的學(xué)習(xí)能力，不僅成本低而且高效?！?/p>

這不是科學(xué)家第一次利用動(dòng)物嗅覺來識(shí)別癌細(xì)胞。

研究人員解釋道：“狗的鼻子很適合用于醫(yī)療診斷以及識(shí)別癌細(xì)胞的揮發(fā)性有機(jī)化合物?！?/p>

但是，讓狗學(xué)會(huì)識(shí)別癌細(xì)胞需要幾個(gè)月甚至一年的訓(xùn)練。

該團(tuán)隊(duì)解釋說：“因此螞蟻?zhàn)鳛樽R(shí)別癌細(xì)胞揮發(fā)物的工具，既快速、高效、廉價(jià)，辨別力又強(qiáng)?！?/p>

“我們的方法未來也可用于其他一系列復(fù)雜的氣味識(shí)別任務(wù)，包括識(shí)別毒品、爆炸物、變質(zhì)的食品或瘧疾、傳染病、糖尿病等疾病?！?/p>

Word Bank

sniff out 嗅出；找出

differentiate /'d?f?'ren?ie?t/ v. 區(qū)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