A noninvasive, portable breathalyzer test uses gold nanoparticles to detect cancer and kidney disease. It could lower spiraling health costs by detecting the illnesses at their earliest and most treatable stages.

The electronic nose works by sniffing out telltale molecules associated with lung cancer and CRF. When a cancerous tumor develops in the body, its cells produce certain biomarkers that appear in the urine and blood. These chemicals cross from the blood into the lungs, where they are exhaled on the breath.

In 2006, Dr. Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa (Israel) first focused on lung cancer. He modified his inexpensive device to also identify chronic renal failure (CRF), and he believes that it can also be used to treat breast and colon cancer.

Dr. Haick and his team have tested the electronic nose on the exhaled breath of lab rats with no kidney function and normal kidney function. The device identified 27 volatile organic compounds that appear only in the breath of rats with no kidney function. Of these, the team identified the five most important compounds that signal the development of kidney disease.

“This technology will enable diagnosis even before the disease begins to progress,” said Dr. Haick “When detected at such an early stage, kidney diseases can be dramatically slowed with medication and diet.”

Large-scale research is now being carried out by Prof. Nakhoul, the director of the Ambulatory Nephrology Unit at Rambam Hospital (Haifa, Israel) to test the technology using breath samples from kidney disease patients.

Current methods for testing for kidney diseases can be inaccurate and invasive. According to the researchers, blood and urine tests now used to diagnose CRF can come out “normal” even when patients have already lost 65%-75% of their kidney function. Currently, the most reliable test, a kidney biopsy, may result in infections and bleeding.

Related Links:
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Rambam Hospital