A team of scientists discovered that ants can use their keen sense of smell to detect cancerous cells.
The team used Formica fusca ants, also known as silky ants, and trained them through a reward system. “After a few minutes of training, these insects, using scent for their daily work, were able to distinguish healthy human cells from cancerous human cells,” the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement.
Researchers are looking for ways to detect cancer early and quickly without having to resort to expensive or deep intervention methods. “Our findings suggest that using ants as living tools to detect biomarkers of human cancer is more convenient, quick, and less laborious than using other animals,” said a paper published last month in iScience.
The training of ants involves associating the reward of a sugar solution with the odor the researchers want them to detect. The team tested the ants’ memory in trials where there was no reward. Trained ants spent time near the scent they were conditioned to respond to. The insects were also able to distinguish between two different cancer cell lines.
Dogs are good at sniffing out cancer, but the training process can take a long time. The CNRS states, “The effectiveness of this method now needs to be evaluated using clinical trials on a human. This first study shows that ants have high potential, can learn very quickly, are less costly and more efficient.”
Researchers see the potential for ants to sniff out other odors as well, such as narcotics, explosives or other diseases. They are not as cute as dogs, but their sense of smell is at least as sharp…
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