PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Haoxuan Chen
AU  - Xinyue Li
AU  - Maosheng Yao
TI  - Rats Sniff off Toxic Air
AID  - 10.1101/739003
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 739003
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/20/739003.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/20/739003.full
AB  - Breathing air is a fundamental human need, yet its safety, when challenged by various harmful or lethal substances, is often not properly guarded. For example, air toxicity is currently monitored only for single or limited number of known toxicants, thus failing to fully warn against possible hazardous air. Here, we discovered that within minutes living rats emitted distinctive profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via breath when exposed to various airborne toxicants such as endotoxin, O3, ricin, and CO2. Compared to background indoor air, when exposed to ricin or endotoxin aerosols breath-borne VOC levels, especially that of carbon disulfide, were shown to decrease; while their elevated levels were observed for O3 and CO2 exposures. A clear contrast in breath-borne VOCs profiles of rats between different toxicant exposures was observed with a statistical significance. Differences in MicroRNA regulations such as miR-33, miR-146a and miR-155 from rats’ blood samples revealed different mechanisms used by the rats in combating different air toxicant challenges. Similar to dogs, rats were found here to be able to sniff against toxic air by releasing a specific breath-borne VOC profile. The discovered science opens a new arena for online monitoring air toxicity and health effects of pollutants.