Team:Paris Bettencourt/Project/Old People Smell

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BACKGROUND

  • 2-nonenal is "Old People Smell," an odorant unique to the sweat of older individuals.
  • 2-nonenal’s odor is described as a combination of cucumber, orris, and fat.
  • Most 2-nonenal comes from the breakdown of sweat-secreted omega-7 fatty acids

 AIMS

  • To create a diffusion model linking 2-nonenal concentration in sweat to the intensity of a perceived odor in the air.
  • Isolate bacterial strains able to digest, scavenge and eliminate 2-nonenal.
  • Recreate the conditions of elder skin, which contains 2-nonenal

 RESULTS

  • Isolated 4 bacterial species capable of growing on 2-nonenal as a carbon source.
  • Determined the critical smell detection limit of 2-nonenal.
  • Analyzed 2-nonenal tolerance and degradation in natural isolates.
Introduction Motivation Aims Results References

Aims and Achievement

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Fig. 2-nonenal formation in an old-person skin

Introduction

Body odor is a unique characteristic of each individual. Our body aroma could change with shifts in diet, physical activity, and age. Previous research has demonstrated that people are able to correctly identify the age of an unknown person based exclusively on their body odor [1]. This research confirmed that 'aging odor' or 'old person smell' does really exist. Moreover, Japanese researchers identified the volatile molecule that is positively correlated with age and significantly detectable for the people over 40 year old. [2]

This molecule is an unsaturated aldehyde 2-nonenal with a characteristic scent described in the literature as a combination of orris, cucumber, and fat.[3] According to Haze et al. [2] the 2-nonenal is formed by oxidative degradation of skin surface lipids, accelerated by lipid peroxides. However, it is not clear if these fatty acids on the skin are initially degraded by skin microbiome or other agents [2].

Results

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Fig. Word cloud describing 2-nonenal

Methods

The deterioration of personal odor due to aging may be a serious social problem for some people which would like to keep youth body odor. Moreover, the 2-nonenal smell is mostly perceived as unpleasant, thus people with body odor marked with this compound may undergo unfriendly reactions based on their odor. Therefore, iGEM Paris Bettencourt Team decided to study the 2-nonenal relationship with the human skin microbiome in order to help aged people neutralize their body odor.

References

- ref1
- ref2

Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Faculty of Medicine Cochin Port-Royal, South wing, 2nd floor
Paris Descartes University
24, rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques
75014 Paris, France
+33 1 44 41 25 22/25
paris-bettencourt-igem@googlegroups.com
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