Head: prof dr Kevin Lamote
Volatile organic compounds as biomarkers for inflammatory and malignant diseases
‘Breath is the mirror of the body’. Already in ancient Greece, Hippocrates instructed his students to “smell the patients breath” in order to diagnose diseases, stressing some compounds in breath are capable to produce a “smellprint” for disease. At the end of the previous century, it was discovered that exhaled breath encloses a liquid phase consisting of water that forms a condensate fraction when cooled consisting of proteins, polypeptides and nucleic acids (Exhaled Breath Condensate; EBC). In addition, breath contains a gaseous phase enclosing nitric oxide and carbon dioxide, but also volatile organic compounds (VOCs): metabolites which reflect the body’s metabolism in health and disease and which were found to be the drivers of the scent, making them useful for diagnosis and monitoring of treatment.
One of the major drivers of VOC production is inflammation. Inflamed tissue as well as pathogens are known to release VOCs. These processes will influence the VOC composition in breath and hence, allow VOCs to also be used to diagnose or monitor response after treatment. Therefore, our research focus lies within applying volatomics to elucidate the role of VOCs and biomarkers in EBC as tools for diagnosing or monitoring inflammatory and malignant diseases in both an in vitro (headspace volatomics) and in vivo (breathomics) setting. Current research lines in volatomics explore the diagnostic value of VOCs and markers in EBC in thoracic oncology (lung cancer and mesothelioma), in gastrointestinal diseases (inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel disease, oesophageal cancer), in pulmonary diseases (asthma, COPD, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, silicosis, lung transplantation), and in infection.
Above of this, these biomarkers can be non-invasively obtained and analyzed via high-end technology as gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (2D-GC-QTOF-MS) which generates a large amount of data, shedding new light on the pathogenesis of diseases.
PhDs & Projects
Eline Schillebeeckx: A novel proteomics-based approach to find more accurate biomarkers for mesothelioma in plasma and exhaled breath condensate (promotors: Prof K. Lamote, Prof J. van Meerbeeck, Prof K. Gevaert (UGent))
Kathleen Zwijsen: Mesobreath 5: assessing the clinical utility of a breath test for pleural mesothelioma (promotors: Prof K. Lamote, Prof J. van Meerbeeck)
Ellen Heirwegh: Identification and validation of volatile organic compounds as predictive biomarkers for the efficiency of immunotherapy as treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma. (promotors: Prof K. Lamote, dr E. Marcq)
Hanne Hendrickx: REACH: Early effects of air pollution on respiratory function and neurobehavioral abilities in children and the influence of lifestyle changes to reduce exposure (promotors: Prof K. Lamote, Prof S. Verhulst, Prof R. Samson)
Nele Van Loon: Assessing the diagnostic value of ‘breathomics’ in the occupational health setting for early detection of interstitial lung diseases (Promotors: Prof K. Lamote, Prof P. Vandamme, Prof. T. Lapperre, dr M. Verbrugghe))
Laila Truyen: ALERT: Assessing heaLth Effects of aiR pollution by non-invasive exhaled breaTh analysis. (promotors: Prof K. Lamote, Prof T. Lapperre)
Kristien Van Haverbeke: Functional respiratory imaging and exhaled breath analysis: novel non-invasive horizons for early detection of bronchopulmonary dysplasia? (promotors: Prof A. Mulder, Prof S. Verhulst)
Shulin Li: Developing a novel breath test for detection of esophageal cancers and precursor lesions (promotors: Prof K. Lamote, dr S. Krishnadath)
Kathleen Van Malderen: Volatile organic compounds and the microbiome in irritable bowel syndrome (promotors: Prof H. De Schepper, Prof B. De Winter)