Volatile Metabolites in Olfactory Perception and Breath Response

A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Advances in Metabolomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2022) | Viewed by 7286

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Neurophysiology of Olfaction and Chemioreception Laboratory (N.O.Ch. Lab.), Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Science Dept., Physiology and Physiopathology Section, University of G. d'Annunzio Chieti and Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Interests: neuroscience; sensorial physiology; olfaction; e-nose; volatile organic compounds (VOCs); metabolic response; COVID-19; behavior; mammals

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Interests: volatile organic compounds; including breath; for diagnostics and metabolic insights/contexts in humans and animals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The explosion of volabolomics, the study of breath physiology, and volatolomics, the development of new devices for breath studies, has enabled the advancement of quantitative and qualitative knowledge of breath-exhaled volatile metabolites, which are an emerging tool for exploring the frontiers of health and disease. Volatile metabolites produced in metabolic reactions, including perceptual reactions, are released with the breath in about one minute. This phenomenon makes breath metabolomics suitable for investigating the olfactory system, which, by its nature, is characterised by an n-dimensional perceptual space, making it particularly challenging to investigate objectively. However, the physiological odorant–receptor interactions that trigger the transduction pathway with the processes and mechanisms of transmission, regulation and perception in the brain together produce a plethora of volatile metabolites.

This Special Issue of Metabolites, “Volatile Metabolites in Olfactory Perception and Breath Response”, will be focused on publishing current advances on functional aspects of individual metabolites or fingerprints during olfactory perception, in-depth applications of volabolomic and volatolomic techniques to the study of olfactory processes in healthy or disease, such as COVID-19.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Mazzatenta
Prof. Dr. Jane Emily Hill
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • olfaction
  • olfactory perception
  • volabolomic
  • breath analysis
  • e-nose
  • diagnostic
  • disease
  • metabolomic
  • COVID-19

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2305 KiB  
Article
Sampling and Analysis of Low-Molecular-Weight Volatile Metabolites in Cellular Headspace and Mouse Breath
by Theo Issitt, Sean T. Sweeney, William J. Brackenbury and Kelly R. Redeker
Metabolites 2022, 12(7), 599; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12070599 - 27 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2040
Abstract
Volatile compounds, abundant in breath, can be used to accurately diagnose and monitor a range of medical conditions. This offers a noninvasive, low-cost approach with screening applications; however, the uptake of this diagnostic approach has been limited by conflicting published outcomes. Most published [...] Read more.
Volatile compounds, abundant in breath, can be used to accurately diagnose and monitor a range of medical conditions. This offers a noninvasive, low-cost approach with screening applications; however, the uptake of this diagnostic approach has been limited by conflicting published outcomes. Most published reports rely on large scale screening of the public, at single time points and without reference to ambient air. Here, we present a novel approach to volatile sampling from cellular headspace and mouse breath that incorporates multi-time-point analysis and ambient air subtraction revealing compound flux as an effective proxy of active metabolism. This approach to investigating breath volatiles offers a new avenue for disease biomarker discovery and diagnosis. Using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS), we focus on low molecular weight, metabolic substrate/by-product compounds and demonstrate that this noninvasive technique is sensitive (reproducible at ~1 µg cellular protein, or ~500,000 cells) and capable of precisely determining cell type, status and treatment. Isolated cellular models represent components of larger mammalian systems, and we show that stress- and pathology-indicative compounds are detectable in mice, supporting further investigation using this methodology as a tool to identify volatile targets in human patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volatile Metabolites in Olfactory Perception and Breath Response)
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11 pages, 6006 KiB  
Article
Metabolomics Diagnosis of COVID-19 from Exhaled Breath Condensate
by Elettra Barberis, Elia Amede, Shahzaib Khoso, Luigi Castello, Pier Paolo Sainaghi, Mattia Bellan, Piero Emilio Balbo, Giuseppe Patti, Diego Brustia, Mara Giordano, Roberta Rolla, Annalisa Chiocchetti, Giorgia Romani, Marcello Manfredi and Rosanna Vaschetto
Metabolites 2021, 11(12), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo11120847 - 6 Dec 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4780
Abstract
Infection from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can lead to severe respiratory tract damage and acute lung injury. Therefore, it is crucial to study breath-associated biofluids not only to investigate the breath’s biochemical changes caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, but also to [...] Read more.
Infection from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can lead to severe respiratory tract damage and acute lung injury. Therefore, it is crucial to study breath-associated biofluids not only to investigate the breath’s biochemical changes caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, but also to discover potential biomarkers for the development of new diagnostic tools. In the present study, we performed an untargeted metabolomics approach using a bidimensional gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GCxGC-TOFMS) on exhaled breath condensate (EBC) from COVID-19 patients and negative healthy subjects to identify new potential biomarkers for the noninvasive diagnosis and monitoring of the COVID-19 disease. The EBC analysis was further performed in patients with acute or acute-on-chronic cardiopulmonary edema (CPE) to assess the reliability of the identified biomarkers. Our findings demonstrated that an abundance of EBC fatty acids can be used to discriminate COVID-19 patients and that they may have a protective effect, thus suggesting their potential use as a preventive strategy against the infection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volatile Metabolites in Olfactory Perception and Breath Response)
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