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By Hannah Millington
Health Reporter
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Sensor tests that respond to taste—such as through chewing gum—could offer an easy way to detect flu before symptoms start and help prevent future outbreaks.
This is the concept of scientists from Germany who have developed a new molecular sensor that releases a thyme-like flavour when it encounters the influenza virus.
Current flu tests require nasal or throat swabbing and can be expensive—not to mention uncomfortable. Lateral flow tests can offer a cheaper and more convenient option, but they’re not reliable for detecting pre-symptomatic infections.
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With this in mind, the researchers set out to create something that is “available for anyone, everywhere and anytime: the tongue.” Based on initial findings, they said future designs might integrate these sensors into chewing gum or thin film.
“The broader population is not using influenza tests much. This involves nasopharyngeal swabs—painful, or at least not pleasant. By contrast, why not chew gum instead? I would expect the chewing gum will substantially lower the hurdle for anyone to test oneself,” study author Lorenz Meinel, professor and chair for pharmaceutics at the University of Würzburg, told Newsweek.
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“Using the tongue as a 24-hour available detector is new for the detection of influenza infections. We profiled a similar sensor—with an entirely different chemical background—some years ago for the detection of strong inflammation in the oral cavity, for example inflammations from dental implants.”
This new sensor releases the flavour thymol, found in the spice thyme, which creates a strong herbal taste on the tongue.
“These sensors enable large-scale early screening to distinguish healthy individuals from flu patients and improve outbreak control,” the study authors wrote in the paper. Once an individual tastes thymol, the idea is that measures regarding isolation and further confirmation can be taken by anyone as soon as possible.
The initial version of the sensor is based on a substrate of the influenza virus glycoprotein called neuraminidase, which flu viruses use to help infect the host’s cells.
“The sensor in intact form cannot be tasted. Neuraminidase, a key enzyme in viral replication, can cut the sensor and one of the products of this enzymatic step is thymol. Thymol can be readily tasted. Thereby, the presence of the virus is translated into a taste sensation,” said Meinel.
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In lab tests of vials with human saliva from people diagnosed with the flu, the sensor released pure thymol within 30 minutes. When testing the sensor on human and mouse cells, they found no reduction in cell survival, suggesting the compounds of the sensor are not toxic to living cells.
“We think the test will [ultimately] take some minutes, but we have not tested it on humans yet. This requires production of the sensor and chewing gum in certified environments,” Meinel acknowledged.
However, explaining what their findings could lead to with further research, he said they now plan to develop an app that users can use to report their taste sensation, among other measures and protocols.
“The app feeds an AI-driven algorithm that should provide an ad hoc forecast of influenza infections on a global level. That way, we could follow the waves of influenza should a pandemic rise up.”
The team hopes future clinical trials will confirm their current evidence with patient-reported outcomes for taste sensations, differentiating performances in pre- and post-symptomatic stages.
While their sensor is just for the flu, Meinel said its principle can be applied to many other diseases.
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Reference
Raschig, M., Gutmann, M., Kehrein, J., Heller, E., Bomblies, M., Groß, M., Steinlein, O., Riese, P., Trittel, S., Lühmann, T., Guzmán, C. A., Seibel, J., Jehle, H., Linz, C., Hackenberg, S., & Meinel, L. (2025). A Viral Neuraminidase-Specific Sensor for Taste-Based Detection of Influenza. ACS Central Science. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.5c01179
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