\n <\/p>\n
Exhaled breath can have hundreds of different compounds in it, some of which could have diagnostic potential.<\/span>Credit: Getty<\/span><\/p>\n The chemicals found in a person\u2019s breath might reveal the identity of the microbes in their guts, according to a study published today in Cell Metabolism1.<\/p>\n Using mice and a group of 41 children, Andrew Kau, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and his colleagues measured the levels of molecules in exhaled breath and showed how they could be used to partially predict the identity and abundance of certain gut bacteria, including one species that is associated with asthma.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gut-microbiome composition can shape the type of compounds you see in breath,\u201d says Kau. This was suspected, he says, but \u201cit was never certain\u201d.<\/p>\n AI\u2019s keen diagnostic eye<\/p>\n The work might lead to devices for diagnosing infections and help to guide treatment of conditions influenced by gut bacteria. Existing methods that test stool samples are time-consuming and more complicated.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the idea of using breath measurements to get more information about health,\u201d says Katrine Whiteson, a biochemist at the University of California, Irvine. \u201cBreath is an amazing measurement because it\u2019s aggregate information from the lung and the whole body.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientists have long wondered about the possibility of using the chemical metabolites in breath to diagnose disease. Human cells and bacteria produce more than 250,000 molecules, or metabolites, as they grow and survive. Some of these can enter the bloodstream, circulate to the lungs and diffuse into exhaled air.<\/p>\n The work has proven daunting, however, says Kelly Redeker, a chemist at the University of York, UK, who was not involved in the study. \u201cThe complexity of the system is massive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exhaled breath can have hundreds of different compounds in it, some of which could have diagnostic potential.Credit: Getty The chemicals found in a person\u2019s breath might reveal the identity of the microbes in their guts, according to a study published today in Cell Metabolism1. Using mice and a group of 41 children, Andrew Kau, an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[1788,7418,2761],"class_list":{"0":"post-42453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-bacteria","9":"tag-breath","10":"tag-gut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Volatile research<\/h2>\n