Multiplatform Metabolomics Studies of Human Cancers With NMR and Mass Spectrometry Imaging

Abstract

The status of metabolomics as a scientific branch has evolved from proof-of-concept to applications in science, particularly in medical research. To comprehensively evaluate disease metabolomics, multiplatform approaches of NMR combining with mass spectrometry (MS) have been investigated and reported. This mixed-methods approach allows for the exploitation of each individual technique’s unique advantages to maximize results. In this article, we present our findings from combined NMR and MS imaging (MSI) analysis of human lung and prostate cancers. We further provide critical discussions of the current status of NMR and MS combined human prostate and lung cancer metabolomics studies to emphasize the enhanced metabolomics ability of the multiplatform approach.

Multiplatform untargeted metabolomics

“…Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) can provide elemental analysis and detect the presence of salts, metals, and metalloids that would be difficult by other methods 37 . MS‐based metabolomics imaging provides spatial distribution of metabolites, but it has low throughput and requires large tissue or cell samples because of the relatively low resolution (50–200 μm) 38 . MS imaging also creates large data sets, easily a terabyte or more per sample, which makes statistical analysis using standard software packages impractical.…”

“…37 MS-based metabolomics imaging provides spatial distribution of metabolites, but it has low throughput and requires large tissue or cell samples because of the relatively low resolution (50-200 μm). 38 MS imaging also creates large data sets, easily a terabyte or more per sample, which makes statistical analysis using standard software packages impractical.…”

13C NMR quantification of polyamine syntheses in rat prostate

“…[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Uniformly 13 C-labeled Orn (L-ornithine: HCl, [U- 13 C 5 ]Orn, 98%) was purchased from Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. (Tewksbury, MA, USA). The Orn to Spm bio-synthesis pathway is illustrated in Figure 1 with 13 C propagation from [U- 13 C 5 ]Orn to [4,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] C 2 ]Spm indicated, and 13 C and 1 H chemical shift values labeled in the diagram.…”

“…Using high‐resolution magic angle spinning NMR and mass spectrometry imaging, we have previously demonstrated that the observed Spm is concentrated in the healthy and histologically benign (without histological evidence of malignancy) epithelia of human prostate tissue 7,8 . We further used laser‐capture‐microdissection and real‐time qPCR to measure mRNA expression of the rate‐limiting enzyme in Spm bio‐synthesis, ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), in captured cells.…”

“…Using high-resolution magic angle spinning NMR and mass spectrometry imaging, we have previously demonstrated that the observed Spm is concentrated in the healthy and histologically benign (without histological evidence of malignancy) epithelia of human prostate tissue. 7,8 We further used laser-capture-microdissection and real-time qPCR to measure mRNA expression of the rate-limiting enzyme in Spm bio-synthesis, ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), in captured cells. We revealed that ODC expression levels in PCa and PCa-adjacent histologically benign epithelial cells were significantly overexpressed compared with those in the PCa-distant histologically benign epithelial cells.…”