Ants Have the Ability to Sniff out Cancerous Cells in Humans蚂蚁能嗅出癌细胞

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.

一项新研究发现，蚂蚁能嗅出人体内的癌细胞，这表明蚂蚁未来可用于对癌症的诊断。

法国国家科学研究中心的研究人员发现，丝光褐林蚁的嗅觉非常發达。

这种蚂蚁的嗅觉超强，能够将人体的癌细胞同健康细胞区分开来。但该研究团队表示，还需要进行更多临床测试才能将丝光褐林蚁用于医院等临床环境中。

为了开展这一研究，科学家用36只蚂蚁进行了测试，让它们在实验室环境中闻细胞的气味。

首先，研究人员让蚂蚁闻一份人体癌细胞的样本。接下来，他们让蚂蚁闻两种不同的气味。一种是新气味，另一种是癌细胞的气味。

这一测试获得成功后，研究人员又让蚂蚁闻两种不同的癌细胞。

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，科学家发现蚂蚁能将癌细胞和健康细胞区分开来，也能分辨不同的癌细胞。

经过训练，丝光褐林蚁能够识别出癌细胞散发出的挥发性有机化合物。

法国国家科学研究中心在一份新闻稿中指出：“这项初步研究表明，蚂蚁拥有巨大的潜力和快速的学习能力，不仅成本低而且高效。”

这不是科学家第一次利用动物嗅觉来识别癌细胞。

研究人员解释道：“狗的鼻子很适合用于医疗诊断以及识别癌细胞的挥发性有机化合物。”

但是，让狗学会识别癌细胞需要几个月甚至一年的训练。

该团队解释说：“因此蚂蚁作为识别癌细胞挥发物的工具，既快速、高效、廉价，辨别力又强。”

“我们的方法未来也可用于其他一系列复杂的气味识别任务，包括识别毒品、爆炸物、变质的食品或疟疾、传染病、糖尿病等疾病。”

Word Bank

sniff out 嗅出；找出

differentiate /'dɪfə'renʃieɪt/ v. 区分；辨别

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

odor /'əʊdə/ n. 气味

capable /'keɪpəbl/ adj. 有能力；有才能

efficient /ɪ'fɪʃnt/ adj. 效率高的