Warwick researchers adapt car component gas sensor for medical diagnosis

Research lead

Researchers at Warwick University are applying gas sensors normally used to test components for premium cars to test blood, urine, and faeces. The results could lead to a new diagnostic tool for gastrointestinal illnesses and metabolic diseases.

Fermentation of undigested foods in the colon by resident bacteria affects not only colonic health, for example, protecting against inflammation and the formation of tumours, but also influences metabolic health. However, studying fermentation and the volatile organic compounds (VOC) that are generated is difficult due to lack of easy access to the colon.

Researchers from the Warwick’s innovation group WMG have devised a solution to this problem, using a special suite of equipment normally used to test car components for premium cars. The equipment heats car material samples to see what range of volatile chemicals (essentially gases) are emitted from car components, to understand the implications for air quality in the car, and the future recycling of the component.

The car researchers wondered if the equipment for studying volatile chemicals in cars could be used to study volatile organic compounds from the human colon.

WMG researchers Mark Pharaoh and Geraint Williams invited medical consultant Ramesh Arasaradnam, a clinician scientist and lecturer in gastroenterology in Warwick Medical School and a practising gastroenterologist, to advise on how they could test their equipment on organic matter.

The gas products of fermentation include various volatile organic compounds, the relative proportions of which may change in disease. The research team has coined the term fermentome to describe the complex interplay between diet, symbiotic bacteria and volatile gases, and believe the study of the fermentome could be used for diagnosis and disease characterisation.

The team has now performed tests on blood, urine, and cow and horse dung. The results so far suggest that the equipment could be used to obtain a useful picture of the range of fermentation gases produced by this organic matter. This could provide a useful analogue in diagnosing gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases.  

The research team are now exploring funding options that would allow them to take this new technique into a larger scale studies including clinical trials.

Pharaoh said, “These early results suggest that we could indeed use this automotive technology to give medical consultants a very precise understanding of the mix of gases being produced within the human gut.  An understanding of the precise mix of gases is a very valuable clue to understanding any problem with the balance and mix of bacteria that are generating those gases.”

Arasaradnam said, “This is could be a vital new tool in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal as well as metabolic diseases. Gaining first hand information of what is going on in the gut would require very invasive procedures. Even simply culturing the bacteria from a patient’s urine or faeces takes a considerable amount of time. This technique could give medical consultants such as myself valuable information about what is causing a patient’s condition long before the data from a standard bacterial culture would be available.”