Body Volatolome Sampling: Deciphering the Matrix for Improved Health Monitoring

The composition of the body volatolome is heavily influenced by internal physiological processes, offering potential insights into one’s health status. Sampling the volatile organic compounds of the volatolome could be an easy and non-invasive way to perform early diagnosis. This study aims to achieve this goal for the Covid-19 by using an advanced sampling system and thermodesorption followed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography hyphenated to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TD-GCxGC/ToFMS). To see if our advanced sampling method can enable both analytical and olfactory detection, canine detection tests were carried out in parallel to analytical detection.In order to deal with the huge amount of data (>500 compounds per chromatogram) a whole research methodology based on chemometric tools was developed. To ensure reliable results and avoid misinterpretations, a special care has been paid to better understand the factors influencing the composition of the matrix: cosmetics, bacterial activity and surrounding environment. 5 volatile biomarkers were identified on the Covid sick group, maybe related to host-response of a viral/respiratory infection.