Comparing DESI-MSI and MALDI-MSI Mediated Spatial Metabolomics and Their Applications in Cancer Studies

Abstract

Metabolic heterogeneity of cancer contributes significantly to its poor treatment outcomes and prognosis. As a result, studies continue to focus on identifying new biomarkers and metabolic vulnerabilities, both of which depend on the understanding of altered metabolism in cancer. In the recent decades, the rise of mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) enables the in situ detection of large numbers of small molecules in tissues. Therefore, researchers look to using MSI-mediated spatial metabolomics to further study the altered metabolites in cancer patients. In this review, we examined the two most commonly used spatial metabolomics techniques, MALDI-MSI and DESI-MSI, and some recent highlights of their applications in cancer studies. We also described AFADESI-MSI as a recent variation from the DESI-MSI and compare it with the two major techniques. Specifically, we discussed spatial metabolomics results in four types of heterogeneous malignancies, including breast cancer, esophageal cancer, glioblastoma and lung cancer. Multiple studies have effectively classified cancer tissue subtypes using altered metabolites information. In addition, distribution trends of key metabolites such as fatty acids, high-energy phosphate compounds, and antioxidants were identified. Therefore, while the visualization of finer distribution details requires further improvement of MSI techniques, past studies have suggested spatial metabolomics to be a promising direction to study the complexity of cancer pathophysiology.

Advances in methods to analyse cardiolipin and their clinical applications

“…DESI-MSI can be performed at ambient operating conditions and with minimum sample preparations. However, this technique has a lower spatial resolution (30–50 μm) than MALDI-MSI (<10 μm) [ 74 ]. MALDI-MSI has shown increased content and chemical diversity of CL species in oncocytic thyroid tumors [ 75 ].…”

Lipid Metabolism Heterogeneity and Crosstalk with Mitochondria Functions Drive Breast Cancer Progression and Drug Resistance

“…Moreover, the TME conditions may change temporally and spatially depending on the tumor progression [ 62 ]. Environmental factors such as special diet, obesity and chronic inflammation may also impact tumor progression and thus metabolic changes [ 80 ]. Metabolic differences between tumor cells and the cells of the TME often reflect a low response to treatment [ 81 ].…”

Spatial omics imaging of fresh-frozen tissue and routine FFPE histopathology on a single cancer needle core biopsy: freezing device and multimodal workflow

“…With the advent of spatially resolved omics technologies like MSI of proteins, lipids, metabolites ("spatial lipidomics/metabolomics") [11][12][13][14] , MSI-guided micro-proteomics 15 , microscopy-guided micro-proteomics 16 and increasingly spatial transcriptomics 17 and spatial multi-omics 18 for studies of complex molecular alterations in pathophysiology in tissue specimen, the promises for future clinical diagnosis, prognosis or targeted therapy are manifold. They allow to uncover intra-tumor heterogeneity and to investigate pathophysiological processes like tumor genesis, -progression ormetastasis.…”