A taste test for flu

What if you could taste an early flu infection? Chemists report a molecular sensor that, when placed on an infected tongue as a thin film or gum, will release thyme’s main flavor compound, thymol (ACS Cent. Sci. 2025, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.5c01179). creators, led by Lorenz Meinel at the University of Würzburg, hope to use it as a fast mass screening tool for the next flu pandemic. Meinel says the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the world’s need for cheap and early testing in tracking, managing, and fighting a future pandemic. Most current flu-detecting tools—PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and immunoassays—are too slow or expensive for early mass screening. We do have rapid at-home antigen tests, but an even simpler, cheaper test that doesn’t involve nasal swabs would be better for mass screening.Meinel and his colleagues arrived at a crafty cost-cutter: using one of the body’s own molecular detection systems, the tongue. They came up with a molecule that, in the presence of a viral enzyme, releases thymol to be tasted. Viral neuraminidase (the “N” in H1N1) methodically cleaves neuraminic acid sugars dotting its host cells. So Meinel’s group synthesized a novel, tasteless neuraminic acid and linked it to thymol. In saliva samples spiked with viral neuraminidase at concentrations typical in active flu infections, the sensor worked—the enzyme cleaved the novel molecule and freed thymol. The tricky part, Meinel says, was making a neuraminic acid that is specific to viral neuraminidases, as opposed to the bacterial or mammalian versions. Guided by predictive modeling, the team