In a recent study, scientists have revealed that ethylene can be detected in the breath of healthy volunteers shortly after bacterial infection, indicating that exhaled ethylene could be used as a biomarker for bacterial infection in the clinic.
According to Paardekooper et al, ethylene release is an early and integral component of in vivo lipid peroxidation with important clinical implications as a breath biomarker of bacterial infection. Image credit: James Heilman / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ethylene (C2H4) is a well-known plant hormone that mediates development and stress responses. Nevertheless, ethylene has recently been appreciated as a product of lipid oxidation in mammals. In humans, stressful events such as exposure to UV light and skin incision during cardiac surgery can engender ethylene emanation in the breath and skin.
Oxidative stress is an important component of inflammation and immune response to infection. A group of researchers from Radboud University, Johns Hopkins University and the Imperial College London examined whether ethylene is formed during the ‘respiratory burst’ following bacterial infection, a process that rapidly elicits oxidative stress to eliminate bacteria.
They found that traces of ethylene are produced early in the inflammatory response to bacterial lipopolysaccharides by both isolated immune cells as well as by healthy volunteers.
“Our results highlight that ethylene release is an early biomarker of bacterial infection. In humans, ethylene was detected at least half an hour earlier than the increase of blood levels of inflammatory cytokines and stress-related hormones. For patients in intensive care this could mean a difference between life and death,” said Dr. Simona Cristescu, a Radboud University scientist involved in the study.
Laurent Paardekooper, the first author of the article from Radboud University, envisions what role this finding could play in the clinic: “The first possible application I see is continuous monitoring of patients that are on artificial respiration. These people have an increased risk of dangerous infections, and because their breath is already going through a machine, it is easy to monitor it for ethylene.”
Sensor Sense, a spin-off company from Radboud University’s Trace Gas Facility, has already developed a device that facilitates real-time detection of ethylene in patient’s breath.
Thus, monitoring exhaled ethylene may become an important tool to identify bacterial infections quickly in susceptible patients.
_____
L.M. Paardekooper et al. Ethylene, an early marker of systemic inflammation in humans. Scientific Reports, published online July 31, 2017; doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-05930-9
