Nanovesicle-Based Bioelectronic Nose for the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer from Human Blood

A human nose‐mimetic diagnosis system that can distinguish the odor of a lung cancer biomarker, heptanal, from human blood is presented. Selective recognition of the biomarker is mimicked in the human olfactory system. A specific olfactory receptor recognizing the chemical biomarker is first selected through screening a library of human olfactory receptors (hORs). The selected hOR is expressed on the membrane of human embryonic kidney (HEK)‐293 cells. Nanovesicles containing the hOR on the membrane are produced from these cells, and are then used for the functionalization of single‐walled carbon nanotubes. This strategy allows the development of a sensitive and selective nanovesicle‐based bioelectronic nose (NvBN). The NvBN is able to selectively detect heptanal at a concentration as low as 1 × 10−14 m, a sufficient level to distinguish the blood of a lung cancer patient from the blood of a healthy person. In actual experiments, NvBN could detect an extremely small increase in the amount of heptanal from human blood plasma without any pretreatment processes. This result offers a rapid and easy method to analyze chemical biomarkers from human blood in real‐time and to diagnose lung cancer. Olfactory nanovesicles are combined with carbon nanotube field‐effect transistors. The nanovesicles recognize lung cancer biomarkers and generate responses through the olfactory signal transduction. The generated responses are converted into electronic signals through the carbon nanotubes. This sensitive and selective bioelectronic nose detects the biomarker from human blood plasma without any pretreatment processes.