Smell and Microbiomes – two Sonata 16 grants at the UPWr

Dr. Anna Matczuk has received PLN 1,315,988 in funding, and her project will be implemented by a consortium consisting of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. The scientist from the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UPWr, in her project "What do viral infections smell like? An analysis of volatile organic compounds and their detection on models of cell lines and mouse models”, will check which smells – volatile organic compounds arise as a result of viral infection.

– These compounds are responsible for the specific smell of a given substance. When inhaled together with air through the nose into the olfactory bulb, they react with receptors in the olfactory epithelium membrane. Doctors already diagnosed some diseases based on the smell in ancient times. Modern science gives us the tools to check exactly which volatile organic compounds are formed in disease processes in humans and animals, explains Dr. Anna Matczuk.

Scientists use gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to study the smells emitted by people infected with bacteria or affected by neoplastic processes. But we still don't know much about what people or animals with a viral infection smell like.

– The impulse to conduct research in this case turned out to be the COVID-19 pandemic, which in a way forced scientists to search for quick diagnostic methods. One of them is the use of specially trained dogs to identify people infected with SARS-CoV-2, says Dr. Matczuk, adding that a dog's sense of smell is 40-times more sensitive than that of humans, which is why they are commonly used to detect trace amounts of drugs, explosives or cancer.

As the virologist from the UPWr explains, viruses, as inanimate particles, do not have their own metabolism, and the smell generated during infection comes from changes in the metabolism of infected cells or an organism. Research by the scientists involved in the project will be carried out first on cell culture models and then on a mouse model, so as to avoid various factors that could affect the production and detection of smells, such as your diet, whether you smoke or what cosmetics you use. Cell cultures will be infected with non-human non-pathogenic animal viruses belonging to different virus families, which have a different type of replication. Gas chromatography will be used to see what volatile organic compounds are produced at different stages of viral infection caused by specific viruses.

THE DOGS WILL RECEIVE SPECIAL TRAINING, AND SPECIFICALLY THEY WILL BE TRAINED TO DETECT ONE OF THE VIRUSES. DURING TESTS, RESEARCHERS WILL CHECK THE SENSITIVITY AND SPECIFICITY OF DETECTION BY DOGS, IF THEY ARE CAPABLE OF DIFFERENTIATING SPECIFIC VIRUS STRAINS OF THE SAME SPECIES THAT GIVE DIFFERENT SYMPTOMS IN MICE, VIRUSES WITH THE SAME SYMPTOMS, AND SICK ANIMALS FROM THOSE VACCINATED.

– And in the mouse model we will check which volatile organic compounds are formed in mice infected with various viruses that cause respiratory and digestive symptoms. We will control the smell released during bacterial infections and in mice vaccinated with inactivated respiratory virus. The next stage of the research will be to check the sensitivity and specificity of the detection of viral diseases by trained dogs – announces Dr. Anna Matczuk.

The dogs will be given special training and, more specifically, trained to detect one of the viruses. As part of the tests researchers will look at the sensitivity and specificity of detection in dogs, whether they can distinguish between different viral strains of the same species giving different symptoms in mice, between viruses giving the same symptoms, and between sick and vaccinated animals. The research will be used to create fragrance libraries for use in clinical gas chromatography and to improve electronic nose devices. They will also help to understand the mechanisms of viral disease detection and the sensitivity and specificity of such methods in a controlled study on model systems.

The experience of the research team plays an important role in this interdisciplinary project. Professor Antoni Szumny from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, is an expert in the field of gas chromatography of volatile organic compounds, Professor Michał Dzięcioł from the Department of Reproduction, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, is an expert in the field of pheromones and scent detection in dogs, while Dr. Agata Kokocińska-Kusiak from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences is an experienced ethologist, dog behaviorist and animal trainer.

The project run by Dr. Sabina Lachowicz-Wiśniewska, who received PLN 16,968,203 in funding under the Sonata program, is also related to health, and more precisely – functional food and its importance for maintaining the eubiosis state of the intestinal microflora, i.e. the balance of the intestinal microbial ecosystem.

As Dr. Lachowicz-Wiśniewska points out, in recent years there has been a growing interest in natural sources of bioactive substances and food products, which, in addition to providing nutrients, also show a high pro-health and symbiotic value, influencing the use of the human microbiome. We are specifically talking about functional food that regulates and modifies physiological and metabolic processes in the body, but is also used in the prevention of civilisation diseases, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes or hypertension. Numerous scientific studies indicate the existence of a strong, positive correlation between the impact of the products we consume, especially ones rich in polyphenols or probiotics, and the health of our body and human well-being, which provides a basis for exploring this research problem within the discipline of food and nutrition technology. Health-promoting compounds, which are mainly plant secondary metabolites, show strong antioxidant properties, protecting the body against oxidative stress caused by excessive production of reactive oxygen species that have not been eliminated from the body by natural repair mechanisms.

– Simply put, probiotic microorganisms, including psychobiotics, maintain our intestinal microflora in good health, which in turn strengthens our immune system, has an anticancer effect, inhibits the growth of pathogens and positively affects our well-being," says Dr. Sabina Lachowicz-Wiśniewska from the Department of Fermentation and Cereal Technology, adding that environmental factors or technological processes lead to a decrease in the survival rate of microorganisms and the bioavailability and bioavailability of phytochemicals in the body. For this reason scientists are looking for methods that would protect bioactive compounds and protect probiotic microorganisms, including psychobiotics.

– Encapsulation seems to be such a technique that will allow to obtain synbiotics enriched in polyphenolic compounds. Research confirms its effectiveness, but we have little information on the preparation of encapsulated synbiotics fortified with bioactive compounds with controlled bioavailability and bioavailability. We are also not familiar with the exact mechanism of interaction between the components of synbiotics and digestive enzymes – explains Dr. Lachowicz-Wiśniewska, adding that it is equally important to determine the storage stability and suitability for obtaining new model synbiotic cereal products.

The project for which she has obtained funding will explore the assumption that the encapsulation of probiotic microorganisms, including psychobiotics, with bioactive compounds will give synbiotics a high pro-health value, polyphenol stability and survival of microorganisms, and thus can be used to reduce pathological changes caused by a poor diet and long-term stress.

– Encapsulation enables a controlled release in the digestive process of probiotic microorganisms, including psychobiotics, as well as the bioavailability and bioavailability of polyphenolic compounds. Their evaluation during simulated in vitro digestion is therefore very important. The new synbiotic food model obtained as part of a daily diet may be effective in the prevention of chronic inflammation and depression, because we already know that disorders of intestinal microflora have a significant impact on mental disorders, including depression," says Dr. Sabina Lachowicz-Wiśniewska, adding that her research – innovative and novel – of model synbiotic products will contribute to the development of cereal products.

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