Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Sep 1;7(5):1175-1188.
doi: 10.1093/jalm/jfac040.

Role of Breath Biopsy in COVID-19

Jyoti Kanwar Shekhawat  1 , Mithu Banerjee  2
Affiliations
Review

Role of Breath Biopsy in COVID-19

Jyoti Kanwar Shekhawat et al. J Appl Lab Med. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is a highly contagious respiratory disease that can be transmitted through human exhaled breath. It has caused immense loss and has challenged the healthcare sector. It has affected the economy of countries and thereby affected numerous sectors. Analysis of human breath samples is an attractive strategy for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 by monitoring breath biomarkers.

Content: Breath collection is a noninvasive process. Various technologies are employed for detection of breath biomarkers like mass spectrometry, biosensors, artificial learning, and machine learning. These tools have low turnaround time, robustness, and provide onsite results. Also, MS-based approaches are promising tools with high speed, specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and broader coverage, as well as its coupling with various chromatographic separation techniques providing better clinical and biochemical understanding of COVID-19 using breath samples.

Summary: Herein, we have tried to review the MS-based approaches as well as other techniques used for the analysis of breath samples for COVID-19 diagnosis. We have also highlighted the different breath analyzers being developed for COVID-19 detection.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; VOCs; breath; breath analyzers; mass spectrometry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ Disclosures or Potential Conflicts of Interest: Upon manuscript submission, all authors completed the author disclosure form. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Disclosures and/or potential conflicts of interest: Employment or Leadership: None declared. Consultant or Advisory Role: None declared. Stock Ownership: None declared. Honoraria: None declared. Research Funding: This work was supported by University Grants Commission, New Delhi, Fellowship no. 582/(CSIR-UGC NET JUNE 2018). Expert Testimony: None declared. Patents: None declared.

References

    1. Shekhawat J, Gauba K, Gupta S, Purohit P, Mitra P, Garg M, et al. Interleukin-6 perpetrator of the COVID-19 cytokine storm. Indian J Clin Biochem 2021;36:1–11. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kucirka LM, Lauer SA, Laeyendecker O, Boon D, Lessler J. Variation in false-negative rate of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction–based SARS-CoV-2 tests by time since exposure. Ann Intern Med 2020;173:262–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barberis E, Amede E, Khoso S, Castello L, Sainaghi PP, Bellan M, et al. Metabolomics diagnosis of COVID-19 from exhaled breath condensate. Metabolites 2021;11:847. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fumagalli M, Ferrari F, Luisetti M, Stolk J, Hiemstra PS, Capuano D, et al. Profiling the proteome of exhaled breath condensate in healthy smokers and COPD patients by LC-MS/MS. Int J Mol Sci 2012;13:13894–910. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Konstantinidi EM, Lappas AS, Tzortzi AS, Behrakis PK. Exhaled breath condensate: technical and diagnostic aspects. Sci World J 2015;2015:e435160. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types