Hope in the Flies

     

Fruit Flies can detect cancer cells from healthy cells
Photo from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Drosophila_melanogaster_-_side_(aka).jpg

     Early cancer detection is very much crucial for screening and curing the disease. For most types of cancers, they are curable if detected early, when metastatic tendencies are low. However, such feat cannot be easily done due to the lack of technology to do so, despite the heavy research efforts oncologists and cancer biologists exerted for years now (American Cancer Society, 2013). In Dr. Galizia’s lab, a neurobiologist, however, promising results on cancer detection had been observed through the use of transgenic fruit flies or Drosophila. In their experiment, they found that fruit flies are able to detect cancer cells from healthy cells. These fruit flies produce characteristic patterns in their olfactory receptors which are recorded when activated by a scent (Strauch, et. al., 2014). Their team used the fact that single odorant molecules dock to the receptor neurons of the flies’ antenna, and thus activate neurons, which in turn will fluoresce. This would form a pattern which differs between scent samples. Because of this, not only healthy cells and cancer cells can be told apart, but also the subgroups within cancer cells. With this fact already discovered, they are hoping to develop cheap, fast and efficient pre-screening that can detect cancer cells well before they are detected with the present diagnostic techniques (Strauch, et. al., 2014).

     It is overwhelming to find out that the disease that killed a lot of lives and loves in the past are, finally, with the help of advancement in technology and dedication of our scientists, shed with the light of hope of healing and total cure. Although a lot of methods and discoveries before promised us with cure, but still did not work for most of the cancer patients, having to know that enormous efforts from the scientific community have been exerted for many tiring years of research and producing more treatment options for cancer patients. This, I believe, is what binds the scientific and common society: the impetus for solving problems of the society as a whole, in which not only those that understands are affected.

Blogpost by: Franzelle P.Padilla

References:

Martin Strauch, Alja Lüdke, Daniel Münch, Thomas Laudes, C. Giovanni Galizia, Eugenio Martinelli, Luca Lavra, Roberto Paolesse, Alessandra Ulivieri, Alexandro Catini, Rosamaria Capuano, Corrado Di Natale. (2014). More than apples and oranges - Detecting cancer with a fruit fly's antenna. Scientific Reports, 2014; 4 DOI: 10.1038/srep03576.

University of Konstanz (2014). The scent of cancer: Detecting cancer with fruit fly's antenna. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2014/01/140124082702.htm

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American Cancer Society. (2013). Cancer prevention & early detection 2013. Atlanta: American Cancer Society.