Inflammation

Non-invasive biomarker discovery with Breath Biopsy® could help to enable early detection of diseases by measuring volatile organic compounds in patients' breath as markers of inflammation.

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Poster

Investigating allergen-induced acute lung inflammation in asthmatic individuals using Breath Biopsy

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Presentation – Dr. Bruce Johnson at BBCon23

Breath volatile organic compound analysis reveals physiological shifts in ultramarathon runners

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Case Study: Differentiating Ferroptotic Lipid Peroxidation

Breath VOCs can report on specific biochemical pathways, including on ferroptotic lipid peroxidation, which is relevant to diseases such as liver disease.

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Inflammation is a complex and multifactorial process that causes increased oxidative stress within cells which can result in lipid peroxidation. Lipid peroxidation can produce volatile compounds such as acetaldehyde, alkanes, alkenes, and other small-chain hydrocarbons.

Importantly, the specific volatile compounds produced depend on the different cell types, and hence different tissues in the body that are affected by inflammation may produce different volatile inflammatory markers. It is therefore possible that unique patterns of lipid peroxidation products can be associated with different disease pathologies. Once identified and validated, the pattern of volatile compounds in breath could then serve as next-generation biomarkers for the presence of these diseases.

Most biomarkers of inflammation, oxidative stress, and lipid peroxidation are often investigated in clinical settings using invasive techniques, such as blood tests. Exhaled breath offers a unique roster of potential biomarkers arising from metabolic pathways in the body that may be disrupted by inflammation and can be collected completely non-invasively. This makes breath an advantageous biomarker matrix to study in comparison to more expensive, more invasively acquired samples that are difficult to tolerate.