Real-time breath analysis towards a healthy human breath profile

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biomarker Discovery
• Human Physiology

Background:

• Direct analysis of human breath offers clinical diagnostic potential.
• Variability in sampling, human phenotypes, and comorbidities hinder study reproducibility.
• A standardized healthy human breath profile is needed for comparative analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish an averaged healthy human breath profile for comparative studies.
• To utilize mass spectrometry and bioinformatics to model breath composition.
• To differentiate inter- and intra-day variations in healthy volunteers' breath.

Main Methods:

• Direct secondary electrospray ionization coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry.
• Development of an in-house bioinformatics pipeline for data analysis.
• Statistical analyses including PERMANOVA, ANOSIM, and optimal binning.

Main Results:

• Breath samples showed significant differences based on time of day, participant ID, date, sex, and age (p<0.001).
• 227 breath features uniquely identified 28 of 31 participants.
• Sex-specific (4 female, 1 male) and time-of-day (37) associated signals were identified.
• Breath metabolite profiles shifted with age, peaking around age 32.

Conclusions:

• A comprehensive healthy human breath profile was created from 48 filtered features.
• The established profile can serve as a reference for future breath analysis studies.
• This approach enhances the reliability and comparability of breathomics research.