Several studies investigated the development of a non-invasive and early diagnostic method for cancer. Recently, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exhaled from cancer patients have been shown to act as a potential biomarker for cancer. However, the gas profile of breath is highly variable and not conducive to identification of biomarkers accurately. Accordingly, we identified a cancer-specific VOC as a biomarker using an in vitro cancer system in order to exclude the variables from patient condition. VOCs were collected from the headspace gas of lung cancer cell line (SK-MES) and normal lung cell line (MRC-5), followed by analysis using solid-phase microextraction (SPME)-GC/MS. As a result, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol was detected from headspace gas of SK-MES and decided as a potential biomarker for lung cancer. By screening human olfactory receptor libraries to detect a lung cancer biomarker, human olfactory receptor 4D11P (hOR4D11P) was identified as a receptor specific for 2-ethyl-1-hexanol and expressed heterologously in HEK293 cells. Additionally, we generated nanovesicles containing hOR4D11P from HEK293 cells and confirmed the expression and functionality of hOR4D11P in nanovesicles.

数项研究调查了癌症的非侵入性和早期诊断方法的发展。最近，已显示从癌症患者呼出的挥发性有机化合物（VOC）可以作为潜在的癌症生物标志物。然而，呼吸的气体分布是高度可变的，不利于准确地识别生物标志物。因此，我们使用体外鉴定了癌症特异性的VOC作为生物标志物。为了从患者病情中排除变量，癌症系统。从肺癌细胞系（SK-MES）和正常肺细胞系（MRC-5）的顶空气体中收集VOC，然后使用固相微萃取（SPME）-GC / MS进行分析。结果，从SK-MES的顶空气体中检测到2-乙基-1-己醇，并将其确定为潜在的肺癌生物标志物。通过筛选人类嗅觉受体文库以检测肺癌的生物标志物，人类嗅觉受体4D11P（hOR4D11P）被鉴定为对2-乙基-1-己醇具有特异性的受体，并在HEK293细胞中异源表达。此外，我们从HEK293细胞生成了包含hOR4D11P的纳米囊泡，并证实了hOR4D11P在纳米囊泡中的表达和功能。