Recently, a research team led by Prof. CHU Yannan from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences adopted methionine regulation strategy and found that oesophageal cancer cells can be identified by two volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with the help of untargeted analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

The study was published in the Journal of Proteome Research.

Oesophageal cancer usually has a poor prognosis.

However, if detected and treated early, the 5-year survival rate can be significantly improved.

Breath tests are safe, non-invasive, and well-accepted, making them a promising method for screening oesophageal cancer.

However, specific VOC markers in the breath for detecting oesophageal cancer have not been conclusively identified yet.

Therefore, conducting cell experiments will help advance research on breath markers for oesophageal cancer.

In this study, researchers used a special technique called HS-SPME-GC-MS to study the smells given off by oesophageal cancer cells (KYSE150) and normal oesophageal cells (HEECs).

They focused on methionine (Met), which was known to influence cancer development.

"We looked at how different levels of Met affected these smells," said Post doctor GE Dianlong, a member of the team.

By growing the cancer and normal cells under different Met concentrations, the researchers discovered that the levels of two specific substances, 1-butanol and ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, varied between the two cell types.

These differences became more pronounced with higher Met levels.

This finding suggests that these two substances can be used as markers to distinguish oesophageal cancer cells from normal cells.

This new method helps regulate the characteristic VOCs of oesophageal cancer induced by methionine, providing a new idea for the identification of cancer cells.

Source: Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences